I took a break from my blogging hiatus just to share this amazing conversation between Bishop Robert Barron and actor Shia LaBeouf.

LaBeouf is infamous as one of Hollywood’s bad boys — as he shares so openly at the point in the time he was approached by Abel Ferrara to play Padre Pio:

When I walked into this, my life was on fire. I was walking out of hell. It wasn’t like I willingly came in here on a white horse singing showtunes. I came in here on fire. My life was a complete mess. I had 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… My mother wanted nothing to do with me. The news that had come out was that I had been abusive to women, I was shooting dogs, that I had been willingly giving women STDs… It’s disgusting. It’s depraved.

On why Buddhism never appealed to him:

If I’m in a boat, and the boat is sinking and I don’t know how to swim; Buddhism is a book that tells you ​“Read this and learn how to swim better!” … And at that time in my life, I didn’t want to swim anymore. I had a gun at the table. I was outta here… Shame like I had never experienced before — the kind of shame that you forget how to breathe… You don’t know where to go.

His outlook toward Catholicism as someone new to the faith is so inspiring, especially after he transitioned from just an actor researching for a role to a sinner who has a genuine conversion to the faith.

I highly recommend you check out the entire conversation — it’s gold!