Well, it’s official—Shia LaBeouf is a Catholic now. More than a year after the actor professed his love for The Latin Mass, inspired by his role as an Italian priest in Padre Pio, he’s been received into the Church and is even mulling the possibility of becoming a deacon.
According to the Catholic News Agency, LaBeouf received his confirmation on Sunday. Capuchin Franciscan friar Brother Alexander Rodriguez told CNA that LaBeouf wants to become a deacon “sometime in the future.”
Rodriguez added, “He just spontaneously said, ‘I want to become a deacon,’ and he still feels that way.”
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LaBeouf found his faith back in 2022; before that, he’d largely avoided the public eye for more than a year in the wake of abuse allegations from his ex-girlfriend FKA Twigs. In 2020, the musician sued LaBeouf for sexual battery, assault, and infliction of emotional distress. That same year, the Los Angeles Times reported that LaBeouf had received misdemeanor charges for battery and theft after an altercation in which prosecutors accused him of resorting to violence and stealing a man’s hat. (Representatives for LaBeouf did not immediately respond to the Times’s request for comment.)
Twigs alleged that LaBeouf’s abuse had been “relentless,” that he’d choked her, and that he’d knowingly given her an STD. LaBeouf has denied Twigs’ claims, but told a Catholic bishop during a 2022 YouTube interview that her allegations had “saved” his life. Twigs’ lawsuit was set to go to trial in 2023, but in September, Pitchfork reported that both parties had agreed to postpone until October of 2024.
LaBeouf had a busy 2022; at that time, he was debuting a film at Venice Film Festival in which he played a saint, and he’d booked a role in Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis. (He was also publicly quibbling with Olivia Wilde about whether she’d fired him from Don’t Worry, Darling or if he’d quit.) Meanwhile, multiple sources confirmed to Page Six that the actor seemed to have worked his way back onto Hollywood’s good side.
Representatives for LaBeouf did not immediately respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment regarding his confirmation and his reported aspirations to become a deacon.
