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<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\nCalling Shaw \u201cthe future Blessed,\u201d the pope said his Christian understanding of the human person led him to recognize that industry \u201cwas not just a productive mechanism or a means of accumulating capital, but a true community of people called to grow together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pope Leo then quoted Shaw\u2019s own description of the vocation of a Christian business leader.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is necessary to form Christian business leaders and provide them with a specific way of living: that of contributing to a better world, principally through the action of each Christian business leader in his own sphere,\u201d Shaw wrote. \u201cThis is a mission of religion and life: seeking to sanctify ourselves through our profession and to sanctify the profession.\u201d<\/p>\n
Granddaughter: \u2018He embodied Catholic social teaching in the business world\u2019<\/h3>\n
For Shaw\u2019s granddaughter Mar\u00eda Elena Critto, Pope Leo\u2019s attention to her grandfather also reflects a striking connection between the pontiff\u2019s choice of name and the body of Church teaching that transformed Shaw\u2019s life.<\/p>\n
\u201cEnrique\u2019s conversion came about through the social doctrine of the Church, and his life and mission were deeply shaped by it,\u201d Critto told OSV News.<\/p>\n
Pope Leo has said he chose his name partly because Pope Leo XIII confronted the social upheavals of the Industrial Revolution with the 1891 encyclical \u201cRerum Novarum.\u201d The document, considered foundational to modern Catholic social teaching, defended workers\u2019 dignity and rights while addressing the responsibilities of employers and the state.<\/p>\n
Shaw, Critto said, studied that teaching deeply and made it his mission to bring the Gospel into a sphere that can appear detached from faith: business and economic life.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe embodied Catholic social teaching in the business world,\u201d she said, demonstrating that an employer can look beyond the economic dimension of a company and recognize \u201cthe dimension of human dignity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shaw: holy man in everyday business<\/h3>\n
Born in Paris to Argentine parents in 1921, Shaw entered Argentina\u2019s naval academy as a teenager and became one of its youngest commissioned officers. After discerning a possible religious vocation, he instead came to understand that his mission was to marry, raise a family and evangelize from within the world of business.<\/p>\n
He married Cecilia Bunge in 1943, and they had nine children. After leaving the Navy, Shaw eventually became managing director of the Rigolleau glass company, which employed thousands of workers.<\/p>\n
He also became active in Argentine Catholic Action and helped found the Christian Association of Business Executives, known by its Spanish acronym ACDE, in 1952. He also participated in the establishment of the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina and Caritas Argentina.<\/p>\n
At Rigolleau, Shaw pioneered robust health care programs and financial assistance for employees and their families. His commitment was put to the ultimate test in 1961 during a severe economic crisis. When the company\u2019s majority shareholders, the U.S.-based Corning Glass Works, ordered the dismissal of some 1,200 workers, Shaw \u2014 already suffering from terminal cancer \u2014 traveled to their headquarters in the United States.<\/p>\n
Leveraging his personal credit and presenting an innovative alternative to utilize the workforce for facility maintenance, he successfully convinced the American executives to rescind the layoffs and preserve every single job.<\/p>\n
Shaw\u2019s \u2018transcendent vision\u2019<\/h3>\n
His understanding of a company extended well beyond its shareholders, Critto said. Shaw considered workers, their families, suppliers, customers, competitors and the wider community to be affected by the decisions of business leaders.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had a transcendent vision,\u201d she said. \u201cHe promoted unity and growth together \u2014 and the growth of everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pope Leo had previously presented Shaw as a model for the business world in a November 2025 message to the Argentine Industrial Conference.<\/p>\n
In that message, the pope said Shaw\u2019s life demonstrated that Catholic social teaching \u201cis not an abstract theory or an unattainable utopia,\u201d but a practicable path capable of transforming people and institutions.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis life shows that 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,\u201d Pope Leo wrote.<\/p>\n
Shaw expressed the same principle with characteristic directness: \u201cThe factory must be humanized. To judge a worker, one must love him.\u201d<\/p>\n
A challenge for Catholics: no separation between who you are at work and who you are at Sunday Mass<\/h3>\n
For Critto, her grandfather\u2019s example is not principally a list of accomplishments or enlightened employment policies. It is the story of a lay Catholic who refused to divide his life into separate religious, professional and family compartments.<\/p>\n
His witness, she said, challenges Catholics to avoid becoming one person at work from Monday to Friday and another person at Mass on Sunday. Instead, holiness must be pursued coherently through every responsibility and relationship.<\/p>\n
Shaw began that effort with prayer, the Eucharist and the sacraments, she said, while remaining close to the Church and attentive to spiritual direction.<\/p>\n
When he initially considered evangelizing as an ordinary worker, he was advised that his greater responsibility was to influence the business world from the position he already occupied.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe wanted to be a worker and evangelize the workers,\u201d Critto recalled. Instead, he was told: \u201cYou are a businessman. You have to influence that world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shaw died of cancer in Buenos Aires Aug. 27, 1962, at 41. During his illness, more than 200 Rigolleau employees volunteered to donate blood for transfusions. On his deathbed, Shaw joked that nearly all the blood flowing through his veins was workers\u2019 blood.<\/p>\n
Pope Francis recognized Shaw\u2019s heroic virtues in 2021, declaring him venerable. On Dec. 18, 2025, Pope Leo authorized the promulgation of a decree recognizing a miracle attributed to Shaw\u2019s intercession, clearing the way for his beatification.<\/p>\n
Critto described having Shaw as a grandfather not as a personal accomplishment or reason for pride, but as \u201can undeserved blessing\u201d that carries a responsibility to share his witness.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe testimony of Enrique transformed me,\u201d she said. \u201cThe best way to give thanks for what I received is to give it to others.\u201d<\/p>\n
His central lesson, she said, is that holiness is not reserved for those who withdraw from the ordinary demands of family, work or economic life.<\/p>\n
\u201cGod is waiting for all of us,\u201d Critto said. \u201cIt is possible, but we have to set ourselves to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
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