VATICAN CITY (RNS) — Growing up on television sound stages, David Henrie fell into what he calls the “bubblegum theory of pleasure.”

“In my teen years, and my early 20s, I was just a successful child actor. I had built up a big following online and was just living for the world,” said the 36-year-old Henrie, who had roles on Disney Channel’s “Wizards of Waverly Place” and ABC’s “How I Met Your Mother.”

As the perks of success lost their flavor, like a stick of bubblegum, he said, they “led me ultimately to an anxious life and a relativistic life. I had no real purpose other than just get stuff, get people to like you, get respect, but that was so fleeting.”

Things changed for Henrie while he was working with actor Kevin James and his “Mall Cop:2” Mexican co-star Eduardo Verástegui on the 2015 movie “Little Boy.” Both Catholics, the two older actors began to question Henrie about his own Catholic childhood. “They were able to challenge me, and they had questions, and they had answers for the questions, and they answered all my questions,” he said.

During the filming, James drove Henrie to St. Michael Abbey in Orange County, south of Los Angeles, where one of the abbey’s Norbertine monks heard his first confession since he was 9 years old. “That moment changed my life,” said Henrie. St. Michael is known for modeling “heroic virtue” as a polestar for male religious life. In November 2022, the monks welcomed Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson, who has attracted young adults with a similar message that men need order and moral direction. 

The monks’ “manly” take impressed Henrie. “That totally dispelled my image of Catholicism, which was, like soft, weak,” he said.

Henrie said that in Hollywood, and the United States in general, “Religion is becoming more attractive now, especially Christianity,” he said, recalling a decade ago, when the movie industry was “more hostile” to religion. Now, he said, a growing number of film executives is interested in religious communities.  

Henrie has become a leader in this movement, joining the board of the Napa Institute, co-founded by investor Timothy Busch, a hotelier and Catholic donor. During the institute’s conference this year, Henrie joined other Catholic actors in a panel titled “Reclaiming the Arts.” In October, he and Jonathan Roumie, who plays Jesus in the biblically inspired TV series “The Chosen,” attended Napa’s Annual Eucharistic Procession in New York.

Henrie said he was eager to align his own work with his Catholic faith. He was in Rome recently as the brand ambassador for the Vatican-sponsored charity Cross Catholic Outreach. He has been calling attention to the charity’s Box of Joy initiative, which allows people to either purchase or create a box with Christmas gifts to give to children living in poor or developing countries. Churches may also organize packing events at their parish.

Cross Catholic Outreach, listed on Forbes’ Top 100 U.S. charities, provided more than $4.8 billion in aid to “the poorest of the poor,” according to their website.

Henrie and his wife, former Miss Delaware Maria Cahill, have hand-delivered the boxes to children in the Dominican Republic and Guatemala. “We were touched by how they do so much more with so much less,” he said, recalling the story of a young girl who gifted her Box of Joy to her little brother after finding out it was the last one.

Henrie had also come to Rome to promote his documentary “Seeking Beauty,” a travel documentary series set to premiere on the Catholic TV network EWTN on Jan. 19 — and to work in some downtime with his wife and their three children. 

The Vatican “is a very special place for us,” he said, recalling that he had a meeting with Pope Francis where he asked him to bless them after Cahill had three miscarriages. “Nine months later, we had our first child,” he said.

While Henrie hasn’t met with Pope Leo XIV yet, he hopes he will get a chance to meet the new pontiff soon. “It was great to know that we have an American Pope. That’s amazing!” he said.