Pope Leo XIV has authorised the promulgation of a decree for the beatification of Argentine Cardijn apostle and entrepreneur, Enrique Ernesto Shaw.
Enrique Ernesto Shaw, born in Paris on 26 February 1921 and later moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina, the land of his family’s origin, will also be beatified.
A young man of strong Catholic faith, he joined the Navy and during long periods at sea held catechesis meetings for sailors.
Called to work in the family business, he committed himself to implementing the principles of the Church’s social doctrine in the world of business, establishing a fraternal relationship of collaboration with all his workers.
Visiting Chicago in 1945, Shaw met with Msgr. Reynold Hillenbrand, who convinced him that he would never be “just another worker,” but could make a difference as a businessman, OSV News reports.
Under Hillenbrand’s guidance, Shaw left the Navy and entered the business world, convinced that economic life was not separate from the Gospel, but one of its most demanding arenas.
That connection has drawn the attention of Pope Leo XIV, himself from Chicago. In a message to Argentina’s XXXI Industrial Conference, the pope wrote that Shaw’s life demonstrates it is “possible to be both a businessman and a saint, that economic efficiency and fidelity to the Gospel are not mutually exclusive, and that charity can penetrate even industrial and financial structures.”
He married Cecilia Bunge, with whom he had nine children; he joined Catholic Action and the Christian Family Movement, promoting various other associations related to the world of work and publishing conferences, articles and essays.
He also helped found the Christian Association of Argentine Business Leaders with the assistance of Joseph Cardijn.
In 1961, he was appointed president of Hombres de Acción Católica. He died of cancer on 27 August 1961.
His intercession led to the miraculous healing of a five-year-old boy who was kicked in the back of the head by a horse on a farm near Buenos Aires on 21 June 2015. The child suffered severe skull and brain damage and underwent several surgical procedures. On 15 July, to the surprise of the doctors, it was found that the ventricular system had returned to normal size. In 2019, the child was examined by two experts who found him to be in good health, with no significant neurological consequences. Today, he leads a normal life.
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Argentinian layman, 11 Spanish martyrs to be beatified (Vatican News)
Enrique Ernesto Shaw (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)