{"id":1650146,"date":"2022-09-21T03:19:17","date_gmt":"2022-09-21T07:19:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1650146"},"modified":"2022-09-21T03:22:13","modified_gmt":"2022-09-21T07:22:13","slug":"the-real-lesson-of-actor-shia-lebeoufs-catholic-conversion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-real-lesson-of-actor-shia-lebeoufs-catholic-conversion\/","title":{"rendered":"The Real Lesson Of Actor Shia LeBeouf\u2019s Catholic Conversion"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fthe-real-lesson-of-actor-shia-lebeoufs-catholic-conversion%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1650146&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<p>In \u201cPadre Pio,\u201d cult director Abel Ferrara\u2019s latest film, Shia LeBeouf stars as the Capuchin friar, priest, stigmatist, and mystic canonized in 2002. During four months of filming, the actor converted to Catholicism. He credits his transformation to the experience of living among monks (\u201cthese cats running around eating ice cream\u201d) and the sway of the ancient Latin Mass.<\/p>\n<p>Media buzz treats LeBeouf\u2019s conversion as a blue ribbon for the Catholic Church and a win for tradition in the liturgy wars. But what this carnival of publicity really signifies is our common susceptibility to images. We all inhabit a galaxy of synthetic realities created to appeal to what we want to believe. In a culture engulfed by sentimentality and emotionalism, moral seriousness collapses into what philosopher Samuel Gregg <a href=\"https:\/\/www.catholicworldreport.com\/2022\/09\/15\/a-church-drowning-in-sentimentalism\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">calls<\/a> \u201can idolatry of feelings.\u201d It infantilizes religious faith.<\/p>\n<p>Hype over LaBeouf\u2019s emotional narrative of redemption is neither wise nor kind. And, no, Catholicism is not \u201cthe new hip thing\u201d as The New York Times just <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/08\/09\/opinion\/nyc-catholicism-dimes-square-religion.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">chirped<\/a>. So let us start over.<\/p>\n<h2>A Real Conversion?<\/h2>\n<p>Padre Pio died in 1968 and acquired rock star status among Catholics despite recorded controversies omitted from the film. Ferrara, who lives and works in Italy, noted: \u201cHe\u2019s an iconic figure. He\u2019s on the back of every truck. He\u2019s the saint of every drug dealer in Naples.\u201d It was a headline-making role.<\/p>\n<p>Eager to re-ignite a career beset by a series of arrests, rehabs, accusations of abuse by multiple women, plus a sexual battery lawsuit filed against him by a former girlfriend, LeBeouf immersed himself in the part. He arrived in Italy wearing a monk\u2019s brown robe. At the Capuchin monastery where the film was shot, he <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2022\/film\/global\/shia-labeouf-abel-ferrara-padre-pio-1235349141\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">slept<\/a> in a bed that Padre Pio had used. Despite his claimed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=hjxKG4mR3UA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">disinterest<\/a> in Method acting (\u201cI\u2019m not in that school of thought\u201d), this was a consummate Method move.<\/p>\n<p>Is LeBeouf\u2019s conversion a radical metamorphosis or the transient passion of an unstable man? Can brief acquaintance with the old Latin Mass triumph over a history of behaviors that point beyond alcoholism to characterological disarray? Is the troubled actor staying in character until the Oscar nominees for best actor are announced?<\/p>\n<p>It is far too early to tell. But LeBeouf\u2019s assertive publicizing of what is a deeply personal interior experience gives pause. Alcoholics Anonymous advises against letting someone rise to speak after only one year of sobriety. St. Paul put it similarly: \u201cHe [an exemplar] must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited.\u201d Yet no prudent wait-and-see has inhibited Catholic media from lionizing LeBeouf.<\/p>\n<h2>Not Just a Feeling<\/h2>\n<p>Pundits and podcasters rush to embrace a prodigal. In Crisis Magazine a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crisismagazine.com\/2022\/what-draws-the-caveman-to-catholicism\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">writer<\/a> rhapsodizes that, if the actor persists, \u201che could be a Heraclitus of all the lost boys of his generation.\u201d Others are moved by LeBeouf\u2019s statement that the Latin Mass put him in the realm of \u201cfeeling.\u201d It is \u201cvery emotional.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But the Mass is not about how one feels. It is an act of worship, the Catholic Church\u2019s greatest prayer. That bedrock truth gets lost in its therapeutic value to a celebrity.<\/p>\n<p>LeBeouf\u2019s aggressive endorsement of the Tridentine Mass has launched him as an apostle for the traditionalist movement. One tradition-minded editor quipped: \u201cFrancis is right in the middle of cancelling the Latin Mass . . . and a kid from Hollywood is dominating the headlines with talk of the Latin Mass. This is fun!\u201d (The \u201ckid\u201d is 36.) He added that LeBeouf could give the pope lessons on the liturgy.<\/p>\n<h2>Method Acting<\/h2>\n<p>LeBeouf\u2019s dismissal of Method acting as too intellectual for \u201ca feeling guy\u201d like himself (\u201cI have a big heart.\u201d) has to be taken <em>cum grano salis<\/em>. Method is an emotion-directed technique. The system is rooted in an actor\u2019s struggle to draw on his own felt life to recreate the emotions and psychology of a character. Getting in character and staying in it requires attention and emotional intelligence.<\/p>\n<p>Consider <a href=\"https:\/\/collider.com\/actors-method-acting\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Adrien Brody<\/a>. He played the lead in Roman Polanski\u2019s \u201cThe Pianist<em>,<\/em>\u201d based on the autobiography of Wladyslaw Szpilman, pianist and Holocaust survivor. Preparation to convey Szpilman\u2019s lived reality was grueling. Brody dieted severely to drop weight in order to suggest the character\u2019s struggle against starvation in the Warsaw ghetto. He withdrew from ordinary life for months, giving up his apartment, his cell phone, his car, his girlfriend. At Polanski\u2019s prompting, Brody practiced the piano some four hours a day.<\/p>\n<p>For his role in \u201cMy Left Foot,\u201d Daniel Day-Lewis stayed in a wheelchair throughout production. He was spoon-fed by crew members so he could experience the ordeal of cerebral palsy. Robert De Niro prepared for his role in \u201cTaxi Driver\u201d by losing 30 pounds and getting a cab license to become familiar with the behavior of cabbies. He took firearm training to lend veracity to his character\u2019s violent impulses.<\/p>\n<p>LeBeouf\u2019s fans would not remember an earlier, more modest conversion by an actor playing a priest. In 1954, while filming \u201cFather Brown\u201din France<em>,<\/em> Alec Guinness was mistaken for a real priest by a local child. The actor was in costume. Trusting the cassock, the boy took Guinness\u2019 hand and walked with him a bit. He chatted along the way, oblivious to the actor\u2019s poor French.<\/p>\n<p>Not until the 1986 publication of his gracious memoir <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thriftbooks.com\/w\/blessings-in-disguise_alec-guinness\/516679\/item\/5083086\/?gclid=CjwKCAjwg5uZBhATEiwAhhRLHnPOPjwJHsOmCDu5MK6GxQ55zaNdG5qC2Hp2u98y-JUwKhnQ8KTA2BoCnsMQAvD_BwE#idiq=5083086&amp;edition=2148568\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u201cBlessings In Disguise\u201d<\/a> did Guinness reveal the full impact on him of the boy\u2019s innocent confidence. When his own young son was stricken with polio, he began visiting a church to pray, eventually going on retreat in a Trappist monastery. In 1956 Guinness converted to Catholicism. His wife followed a year later; his son, two years after that. A profound decision was kept close for 30 years. He explained: \u201cThere had been no emotional upheaval, no great insight, certainly no proper grasp of theological issues; just a sense of history and the fittingness of things.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Everyone of goodwill can wish well to Shia LeBeouf. Those of us who love the old Mass \u2014 and have been schooled by it \u2014 can go further. We might invite the actor to put aside YouTube confessions, place Instagram on hold, and keep an eye off the box office. Instead, enter the quiet of Latin liturgy and heed Psalm 46: \u201cBe still, and know that I am God.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<div class=\"article-author-description fst-italic\">\n  Maureen Mullarkey is a painter and a critic. A member of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA), she writes on art and its intersection with religious and politics. Her essays have appeared in various publications, including The Nation, The Hudson Review, Arts Magazine, Art &#038; Antiques, and The American Arts Quarterly. She was a columnist for The New York Sun during its life as a print publication. Currently, she is a senior contributor to The Federalist, an irregular contributor to The Weekly Standard, and keeper of a weblog titled <a href=\"http:\/\/studiomatters.com\">Studio Matters<\/a>. She is represented by George Billis Gallery, NYC. Follow her on Twitter, @mmletters.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In \u201cPadre Pio,\u201d cult director Abel Ferrara\u2019s latest film, Shia LeBeouf stars as the Capuchin friar, priest, stigmatist, and mystic canonized in 2002. During four months of filming, the actor<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1222,"featured_media":1650148,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1650146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1650146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1222"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1650146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1650146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1650148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1650146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1650146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1650146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}