Pope Leo XIV approves miracle for Venerable Enrique Shaw, a wealthy businessman and father of nine, proving Gospel fidelity and economic success can coexist
Newsroom (19/12/2025 Gaudium press ) In a decree that resonates with one of Jesus’ most stark warnings about wealth, the Vatican announced on December 18 that Pope Leo XIV has recognized a miracle attributed to the intercession of Venerable Enrique Ernesto Shaw, an Argentine layman who built a successful business career while living profound Gospel values. The approval clears the final obstacle for Shaw’s beatification, positioning him as a modern model for Catholic laity navigating the demands of economic life.
Shaw, who died in 1962 at age 41 after a battle with cancer, was a husband, father of nine, former naval officer, and prosperous industrialist. His life embodied the rare coherence between faith and professional action that has long challenged the wealthy, recalling the Gospel of Matthew’s declaration that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.
Born in 1921 at Paris’s Ritz Hotel to an Argentine family, Shaw grew up in privilege but pursued a path of discipline and service. After losing his mother at age 4, he spent a year in the United States with his father and brother, where he received confirmation. His father, though non-practicing, honored a promise to raise the children Catholic.
Shaw became Argentina’s youngest naval school graduate at age 14 and retired as a lieutenant at 24. A pivotal 1945 trip to study meteorology in the United States — arriving in New York on the day World War II ended — transformed his vocation. Conversations with Msgr. Reynold Hillenbrand, a Chicago priest renowned for Catholic social engagement and labor ministry, convinced Shaw that he could sanctify the world not as an ordinary worker, but as a businessman.
Guided by Hillenbrand, Shaw left the Navy and entered commerce, viewing economic activity as a demanding arena for living the Gospel. This perspective has particularly drawn Pope Leo XIV’s attention; the pontiff, himself from Chicago, highlighted Shaw in a message to Argentina’s XXXI Industrial Conference, stating that his life shows 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.”
Shaw founded the Christian Association of Business Executives in Argentina and, inspired by studies at Harvard Business School — where he attended by invitation without applying — helped establish a pontifical university in his country. He rose to CEO of Rigolleau Glassworks, his wife’s family business, while leading the men’s branch of Catholic Action, heading local Caritas efforts, and raising nine children.
At Rigolleau, serving 3,400 workers, Shaw implemented pioneering benefits including a pension fund, comprehensive health care, medical support during illness, and loans for major life events. He knew employees by name, inquired about their families, and kept a notebook to track their needs.
As death approached, some 260 workers donated blood for transfusions. Shaw expressed gratitude, saying, “I can tell you that now almost all the blood that runs through my veins is workers’ blood. I am thus more than ever identified with you, whom I have always loved and considered, not as mere executors, but also as executives.”
Shaw saw business as a community of persons, where work dignifies humanity. He advanced labor relations based on dialogue, justice, and respect amid Argentina’s turbulent 1950s. A key contribution was promoting the family wage — salaries reflecting not just productivity, but the needs of supporting a household.
His public faith carried risks. In 1955, during religious persecution under President Juan Domingo Perón — marked by church burnings and state-church conflict — Shaw was arrested twice for his Catholic Action role. He faced opposition with serenity, integrating personal piety and civic duty.
Supported by fellow Argentine Pope Francis, Shaw’s cause progressed steadily. The decisive miracle occurred on June 21, 2015, when a 5-year-old boy near Suipacha, outside Buenos Aires, suffered severe head trauma from a horse kick. Physicians deemed his condition critical, questioning surgery’s viability. The parents invoked Shaw’s intercession; the child recovered fully and now lives normally as a teenager, with no sequelae.
The boy’s father reportedly prayed, “I exchange your holiness for the health of my son.” The Vatican decree, published December 18 with Pope Leo XIV’s approval, formally deemed the healing inexplicable by medicine.
The advancement of Shaw’s cause holds broader significance for a Church emphasizing lay vocation. His example addresses Christianity’s perennial tension: reconciling wealth, power, and responsibility with spiritual integrity, demonstrating that salvation’s demands, though rigorous for the rich, remain attainable through faithful action.
- Raju Hasmukh with files from OSV News
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