Servant of God Enrique Shaw. / Credit: Acdeano, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
ACI Prensa Staff, Dec 19, 2025 / 10:35 am (CNA).
Pope Leo XIV has approved a miracle attributed to the intercession of Venerable Enrique Shaw, an Argentine layman, husband, father, and businessman who died in 1962 at the age of 41.
The prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, made the announcement Dec. 18 when he promulgated the decree, which came two days after the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints gave its “favorable opinion” on the canonization process.
The miracle
The miracle attributed to Shaw’s intercession is the inexplicable healing of a 5-year-old boy who, in June 2015, suffered a very serious head injury from being kicked by a horse. His family, who had ties to the Christian Association of Business Leaders — co-founded by Shaw — began to ask for prayers, trusting in his intercession. As the days went by, the prayer chain united thousands of people in different countries, according to the news outlet Infobae’s account of the testimony of Fernán de Elizalde, administrator of the cause.
Following five surgeries and 45 days in critical condition, doctors decided to implant a permanent drainage valve in the boy’s brain. However, just before the surgery, the surgeon discovered something unexpected: The fluid was draining spontaneously, and the intracranial pressure had normalized, making the valve implantation unnecessary.
The boy’s recovery was rapid: Within a few days he was extubated and showed neurological improvement. Fifteen days later, he was already in rehabilitation. “He recovered completely, without neurological sequelae, without cognitive damage, and without visible deformities. Today, as a teenager, he leads a normal life. No one would imagine what he went through, except for those who know his story,” De Elizalde told Infobae.
‘Great joy for the Argentine Church’
Upon learning of the decree approving the miracle, Bishop Santiago Olivera, military ordinary of Argentina and vice postulator of the cause, told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, that “today is a day of great joy for the Argentine Church.”
Regarding the news, the bishop said: “We expected it, but we were surprised by how quickly it happened, and we are certainly grateful to God, and to all those who have worked for so many years and made this possible.”
“We must always be very grateful to those who prayed, to those who started [the process], to the first postulator, to Cardinal [Jorge María] Mejía, and to all those who continue to work on the cause today,” he added.
Mejía was one of the initiators of the cause and the one who created the Enrique Shaw Commission.
Fruits of causes are God’s answers to prayer
Olivera especially thanked those who pray, “because the fruits of these causes, which serve as models and examples, are also God’s answers to the praying people who confidently ask for this grace.”
Finally, he thanked the family of the healed child, “because we also owe this grace to their faith, and we not only have to thank God for the life of the child (now an adolescent) but also because the family’s faith made it possible for the entire Church, and Argentina in particular, to rejoice in this news today.”
Upon learning of the approval of the miracle through Shaw’s intercession, the Christian Association of Business Leaders, petitioner for the case, and Catholic Action of Argentina, a co-petitioner in the beatification and canonization process, issued a joint statement expressing “immense joy” and celebrating this “decisive step” on the path to sainthood.
They recalled that Shaw was “a businessman who understood that industry was not only a productive mechanism or a means of accumulating capital but also a true community of people called to grow together.”
In the same statement, the president of the Christian Association of Business Leaders, Silvia Bulla, said that “the beatification of Enrique Shaw will give the world the first businessman recognized as an example of holiness” while also serving as “an urgent invitation to humanize the economy, work for the common good and the dignity of labor.”
Who was Enrique Shaw?
Shaw was born on Feb. 26, 1921, and at the age of 4, his mother died. Fulfilling his wife’s request, his father entrusted his son’s education to a priest.
In 1943, he married Cecilia Bunge, and they had nine children. After retiring from the Navy in 1945, he chose to pursue a career in business, a path that would yield great fruits.
He was the managing director of Rigolleau Glassware and one of the founders and the first president of the Christian Association of Business Leaders, which promotes a humane approach to work.
A businessman with the heart of a worker
When he fell ill with cancer and needed blood transfusions, his own workers volunteered to donate blood for him. He died on Aug. 27, 1962, at the age of 41.
In April 2021, Pope Francis authorized the promulgation of the decree recognizing the heroic virtues of the businessman, faithful layman, and father.
After the miracle attributed to his intercession passed the medical review in January of this year, the Commission of Theologians also unanimously approved it on June 17.
The next step is his beatification, the date of which has not yet been announced.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
