It was a true shock when, back in January, it was announced that Shia LaBeouf, the eccentric actor of Even Steven, Transformer, Honey Boy, and The Peanut Butter Falcon fame, was set to star in the upcoming film Padre Pio, which tells the life story of the eponymous saint. It came as a greater, more welcome surprise when LaBeouf sat down with Bishop Robert Barron to talk not only about the new film but also about his conversion to the Catholic faith.
LaBeouf’s testimony is nothing short of incredible. During his interview, which is linked here, he recounts how he began experiencing despair and suicidal thoughts as it seemed his career and life goals were beginning to slip away, and that he was contemplating suicide at the time that he was offered the role of St. Pio in the upcoming film.
While it is not the intention of this article to go into depth discussing his testimony (we urge you instead to watch the full interview), it is the intention to focus on one of the things that LaBeouf said was instrumental in his conversion to the true Church of Jesus Christ: studying and attending the Tridentine Mass.
LaBeouf lived at San Lorenzo seminary with Capuchin monks to prep and study for his role. He recounts that at the seminary the Capuchins showed him the depths of true Christian charity and fraternity, and how this love transformed him. He then recounts his time studying and imitating the Latin Mass in preparation for the role, and how this further transformed him and moved him to adore the deep mysteries of God.
LaBeouf related his experience in Mass to an actor drawing an audience into a moving performance: "That's probably why the Mass changed... there was a yearning to activate the public in an artificial way... Latin Mass affects me deeply. Deeply." Bishop Barron responded inquisitively by asking "Why is that?" LaBeouf then gave the million-dollar answer: "Because it feels like they're not selling me a car."
It is worth saying that, as much as he says that he's not an expert on liturgy, LaBeouf very intuitively hit upon several things that actual liturgy experts, such as Dr. Peter Kwasniewski, have pointed out about the differences between the Old and New Masses. That aside, this statement shows something that everyone who actually attends the Latin Mass understands which many people, including the current Roman Curia, do not seem to grasp: the most effective way to spread authentic Catholicism, within the Church and without, is to embrace the traditions of the Church, and that includes embracing the pre-conciliar Mass.
I'll briefly depart from Mr. LaBeouf and explain why it is the case that the Latin Mass is not only effective but essential to the spread of Catholicism:
First, we are facing a crisis in the faith. In the United States, two-thirds of self-professed Catholics do not believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, which the Catechism calls "the source and summit of our faith." According to Pew Research, only 39% of Catholics attend Mass every Sunday, meaning a full 61% of Catholics are actively violating a precept of the Church and living in a state of mortal sin. The same study showed a full 2/3 of Catholics are also moral relativists, 52% seldom or never read Scripture, nearly 30% do not believe in Hell, 48% believe that abortion should be legal (compared to the 47% who assent to Church teaching and believe that it should be illegal), and 70% believe homosexually should be accepted (in direct contradiction of the Catechism, paragraphs 2357-2359).
Compare this to those faithful who attend the Old Mass. Only 1% of those who frequent the Traditional Rites support abortion, only 2% approve of legal homosexual unions, 99% of them attend Mass and Confession weekly, and they donate an average of 6% of their annual income to the Church, as opposed to the 1% the average New Mass attender donates.
Before moving on, none of this is to say that the Catholics who attend the Traditional Mass are superior to those who do not. It is to say, however, that there is a different culture among those who are devoted to the ancient traditions of the Church and those who are not. This is something that needs to be investigated.
Second, there is a crisis of vocations in the Church. Since the 1950s, rates of men entering the priesthood have precipitously declined, and the decline has only evened out within the past twenty years. The numbers simply have not recovered since 1970. Compare that to the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP), a Catholic society of apostolic life whose charism is to celebrate the old form of the Sacraments, whose vocations to the priesthood have ONLY increased since it was founded in 1988, and whose priest-to-laity ratio is substantially better than that of the wider Catholic Church. What, may we ask, is driving so many people to become priests in the Traditional Rites compared to the New Rites? Is it perhaps that there is something about the Traditions that draw people to the religious life?
Third, the current Roman Curia is obsessed with the youth. In 2018, the Pope called a Synod of Bishops specifically to discuss the subject of young people. The desire for youth outreach is not a mistake on the part of the Vatican, but a good goal. According to Gallup, only 12% of Millennial and Gen Z (Zoomer) Catholics regularly attend Mass.
How might this compare to trends in the Tridentine Rite? According to a survey conducted by Fr. Donald Kloster, a full 98% of Millennial and Zoomer Traditionalist Catholics attend Mass weekly. 80% of them have at least considered a vocation to religious life. Most of them also have not been raised in the Traditional Mass, with a full 90% of them coming to this Mass later in life. The Traditional Mass also has incredible power in attracting non-Catholics and non-practicing young Catholics, with 45% of those young people who attend the Old Mass being either converts (like this author) or reverts to the faith. Shia LaBeouf now finds himself among their ranks.
The amazing thing here is that this trend has been recognized by both the Benedict and Francis pontificates. The main difference between the two has been their respective approaches. In his letter to the Bishops accompanying the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, which allowed for wider use of the pre-reformed liturgy, Pope Benedict XVI wrote "it has clearly been demonstrated that young persons too have discovered this liturgical form, felt its attraction and found in it a form of encounter with the Mystery of the Most Holy Eucharist, particularly suited to them." Meanwhile, Pope Francis recognizes the attraction that the youth have to the Latin Mass and, instead of embracing it as at least one way forward for the Church, he aims to suppress this devotion with his recent motu proprio and thinks it meet and just to psychoanalyze young traditionalists: "I always try to understand what's behind people who are too young to have experienced the pre-conciliar liturgy and yet still they want it... I ask myself: Why so much rigidity? Dig, dig, this rigidity always hides something, insecurity or even something else” (emphasis added). So goes youth outreach.
With this, we bring the conversation back to Shia LaBeouf. A good many traditionalist Catholics watched this interview rejoicing, not just in union with the saints for the conversion of a sinner, but also because Shia LaBeouf said to the most popular Catholic bishop in America what they all have wanted to tell any bishop in the world, let alone Bishop Robert Barron: the Traditional Mass speaks more to the beauty and truth of the Catholic faith than the bureaucratically-contrived rubrics of the 1970s. Shia LaBeouf, a degenerate among degenerates who found his life spiraling out of control, found our Lord because of the Traditional Mass.
If you want to attract people to Catholicism, gimmicky tactics like 65-year-old hippie priests blessing his flock with a guitar won't work. "Inculturation" and things like the Congolese Rite translated into different cultures will only add gas to the already white-hot inferno. Nobody wants to go to church and find the pastor selling them a car. If the so-called Listening Church truly wants to stir devotion in the youth, then what they should do is actually listen to the youth, even if that means pumping the brakes on their outdated mid-twentieth century experiment.
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