ROME (LifeSiteNews) — Cardinal Arthur Roche, the prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, says he is willing to talk to Hollywood actor Shia LaBeouf, who recently drew headlines for crediting the Traditional Latin Mass with his conversion while also saying he lacks the same fondness for the New Mass.
“I’d like to know why he thinks that, what is his experience of the celebration of the Mass,” Roche said in an interview with the National Catholic Reporter and The Tablet after being told of LaBeouf’s strong admiration of the Old Mass.
“That’s what priests do; we try to talk to people,” added the cardinal, affirming he would be open to talking to the actor.
As reported by LifeSiteNews, LaBeouf recently stunned popular American Bishop Robert Barron by telling him of his conversion and the role the Traditional Latin Mass played in it.
“Latin Mass affects me deeply … because it feels like they’re not selling me a car,” LaBeouf told Barron, implying he attributes a certain banality to the reformed liturgy.
In his interview with Barron, LaBeouf explained he had his first sustained connection with Catholicism while living at a monastery with Franciscan Capuchin friars – the order of Padre Pio – so that he could better understand how to act as the late mystic for his upcoming film in which he plays the priest.
Elaborating on his newfound love for the Latin Mass, he said that while “practicing Latin Mass” for the role, he “was having genuine emotional experiences.”
He explained that the quietness and the sacred nature of the old liturgy spoke to him more deeply than the new liturgy.
“Latin Mass puts me squarely in the feeling realm because I can’t argue the word, because I don’t know what the word means, so I’m just left with this feeling that feels sacred and connect[ed],” LaBeouf outlined.
Roche, who was just elevated to Cardinal by Pope Francis last week, has been notable in his defense and promotion of Francis’ severe restrictions on the traditional Mass as contained in Traditionis Custodes, as well as the Pope’s subsequent Responsa ad dubia that contained even further restrictions.
Roche has recently gone as far as suggesting that those opposed to this “reform” of the liturgy are “becoming more Protestant” than Catholic while describing the Second Vatican Council — which paved the way for the Novus Ordo liturgical reforms — as “the highest legislation that exists in the Church.”