My Facebook feed is awash with news of Shia LaBeouf - a Hollywood actor - converting to Holy Mother Church as a consequence of portraying St. Padre Pio for an upcoming movie. He recently gave an interview to Bishop Robert Barron:
The interview is edifying, not just for the story itself, but how Mr. LaBeouf converted. According to LaBeouf, it was experiencing the Old Mass itself that played an instrumental role. Bishop Barron was also on fine form, to give further edification. The Bishop has had a poor record in that arena, so credit where it is due.
The interview has already been shared widely and reported by such outlets as Fox News. It has even gone to the point where people have "meme-fied" the interview, putting up pictures such as this:
It was this picture that led to this post.
Friends, it is very good that Mr. LaBeouf has converted. Praise be to God and All That He Is for the great grace we are witnessing. Our Lord spent a lot of time looking for this lost sheep.
However, I think we need to give Mr. LaBeouf absolute privacy when it comes to his conversion and the subsequent growth and maturation in the Faith. I say this as a form of caution. I dislike saying this. Mr. LaBeouf is a Hollywood actor and is in the limelight as a consequence. When people are in the limelight as constantly as he is, there is a danger that we (as Catholics) will make them out as greater than he is, or that he will turn around and disappoint us to some degree, perhaps even doing away with the Catholic faith altogether.
There are strong signs this conversion is genuine. However, Catholic Hollywood actors such as Mark Whalberg have disappointed us in the past, simply because we put them on a pedestal and they turned out not so great. (See, for example, the Ted movies and the recent Father Stu.) Mr. LaBeouf is no exception - though I hope he is.
I think it is imperative we leave him alone from here on out, and let his personal friends in the Capuchins (not to mention Bishop Barron) help him.
That being said...
Welcome home, Mr. LaBeouf. Make yourself at home. We hope you stay for the long haul, and discover the richness of the Faith in the same way I and so many others have - and stayed.
God bless you and keep you in the way Only He can.
The Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, 1747, by Fray Miguel Melchor de Herrara
This beautiful painting has several Scripture references. When I realized that, the Prologue from John came to mind. Scripture and His Sacred Heart are intertwined - for Our Lord Jesus Christ was, and always will be, the Word made Flesh.
Most readers should be aware that following the collapse of the western-imposed Bolshevik terror regime on the peoples of Russia, the Slavic Nation has been making increasing strides towards a Christian revival. Much work needs to be done, however, the campaign of the Putin-Medvedev governments have shown great fruit in rebuilding thousands of churches, as well as an increasing "symphony" between Church and State (anyone read Pius XII's Quas Primas?).
Meanwhile in the Ukraine, the US-EU puppet regime of "Elensky" (after all "Z" is banned) has now announced that it will be seeking to introduce "civil partnerships" into legislation in a push to fully legalize eventually the horror of same-sex "marriage".
From Interfax Religion:
The Ukrainian Constitution cannot be changed during martial law or a
state of emergency, Zelensky said. "At the same time, the government has
elaborated possible solutions to legalize a registered civil
partnership in Ukraine in furtherance of the effort to endorse and
observe human rights and freedoms," he said.
It should be noted that the long-suffering peoples of the Ukraine (used as cannon fodder in the NATO directed war that commenced with the putsch in 2014) despise sodomy, as all traditional Slavic peoples do. After an abortive "gay pride" parade in Odessa, a priest went about purifyingthe area with holy water. Would that our priests (dare I say bishops!) in Canada have such courage! But alas, they sit silent like mutes.
This perverted scheme of Elensky and his puppet masters will come to naught. The ultimate fate of Elensky and his corrupt regime remains to be seen, but it is becoming highly likely he will either be overthrown by what is left of the Ukrainian Army (exposed as an enemy of the Ukraine and eventually be tried for treason for dragging the nation into a completely unnecessary war on behalf of the imperialist war-mongering NATO globalist elites and sending 60,000 (and counting) young Ukrainian men to needless death), or flee to one of his mansions in the decadent "West".
Meanwhile in Russia we have the following counter-blow against the "LGBT" juggernaut. Would that Washington, Westminster, Ottawa, or Brussels bring in legislation to stop the dissemination of "LGBT" propaganda. Think carefully friends, as to whom God is looking favourably upon right now. One thing I do know, it is not the demonic West (were not high ranking members of the Biden regime just recently in South Korea pushing "LGBT" ideology? Did not "Taiwan" just recently "legalize" perverted "marriages" as a nod towards its puppet master? How long will it take for people to realize that their governments are run by a bunch of perverts?).
From Interfax Religion we have the following from Nikolay Burlyayev, first deputy head of the State Duma Committee for the
Development of Civil Society, Issues of Public and Religious
Associations, member of the Patriarchal Council for Culture:
Question: One of the authors of the law, Alexander Khinshtein, said that it
will also affect online cinemas. However, as you rightly noted, in
recent decades, in almost every film shot in Europe and America, at
least one character turns out to be an LGBT representative. In many of
such films, as a rule, superstars were shot, and these films were
professionally dubbed at the studios of Russia. Does it mean that the
new law will deprive the Russian adult viewer of the opportunity to see
or re-watch these films? Burlyayev: That's right. And thank God, because it will be a boon for Russia. I
can't say for sure to what extent the law will affect online cinemas,
these measures will be worked out later. The main thing now is to pass
the law itself, and the specifics will be further discussed and changed.
But what will definitely change is that rental certificates will be
issued more deliberately. Question: What are the chances of adoption of this bill? Burlyayev: There is opposition, of course, but, as Nikolay Gogol said, there is a
battle going on now, the most important battle for the human soul, and
this battle has not only not ended since Gogol's time, but it has become
tougher. As Dostoevsky wrote, "the devil is fighting with God, and the
battlefield is the hearts of people." This struggle is going on in every
heart, because sin is attractive, and even the screen shows vice as
something very interesting. But that time is passed, I hope.
