'Transformers' Star Shia LaBeouf Says Traditional Latin Mass Led Him to Catholicism

On Aug. 25, news broke that ‘Transformers’ star Shia LaBeouf converted to Catholicism.

LaBeouf told his conversion story on Bishop Robert Barron’s ‘Conversations at the Crossroads‘ series. LaBeouf converted while preparing for his role as St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina in the upcoming movie, ‘Padre Pio.’

Before signing onto the movie, the actor said he was suicidal amid several public scandals. He said Hollywood blacklisted him, he had no friends, and no family to turn to.

“When I walked into this, my life as on fire. I was walking out of hell,” he said.

“I didn’t want to be an actor anymore. My life was a complete mess. I hurt a lot of people. I felt deep shame, deep guilt. I didn’t like to go outside much. I had a yearning to not be here anymore. I was on my way out.”

He explained that signing onto the movie “felt miraculous” and that “Pio saved my life.”

Throughout his conversation with Bishop Barron, LaBeouf said the Traditional Latin Mass (Tridentine Mass) played an important role in his conversion. He said he went to Latin Mass “all the time” during his preparation.

“Latin Mass affects me deeply,” LaBeouf says.

“How come?” Bishop Barron responds.

“Because it feels like they’re not selling me a car,” he continues. “It feels like it’s not being done to sell me on anything. And it feels almost like I’m being let in on something very special. The quiet…it activates something in me where it feels like I’ve found something.”

“It feels like a special thing that you’ve found and you protect it and hold it and it’s yours.”

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“There’s a certain language where I don’t need to know the words, which is what I feel when I watch Pio’s Mass.” LaBeouf continues.

“I know what’s going on and I feel it deeply. It almost feels more powerful than when I feel every single word. It takes me out of the realm of the intellectual, and it puts me squarely in the realm of the feeling, and the beauty thing that you talk about.”

“I was never an atheist. I was always an agnostic,” the actor says. “I always had a belief, but I never had a connection. Latin Mass gave me something where I felt connected, which took me out of belief and into connection.”

How beautiful! ❤️‍🔥