Compartimos una nota de CRUX\u00a0Covering all things Catholic<\/em>\u00a0sobre Enrique Shaw.<\/p>\n\n\n\n WASHINGTON \u2014 When Pope Francis addresses a joint session of Congress on Wednesday, many Americans might be expecting another round of criticism of the excesses of capitalism. There\u2019s an assumption that business people just aren\u2019t his preferred crowd. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Not so. Call it another Francis Surprise: There\u2019s one Argentinian entrepreneur he not only cites as a moral role model, but has actually proposed as a candidate for sainthood. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Enrique Shaw was born in 1921 into a wealthy family. He joined the Navy at a young age and eventually took several positions of leadership in his family\u2019s companies, with the intention of promoting, and putting into practice, the Catholic Church\u2019s social teaching. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He died in 1961 after battling cancer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In an interview with a Mexican TV station last March, the pope said he\u2019s moving forward with Shaw\u2019s beatification despite defining him as \u201ca rich man.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEnrique Shaw was rich, yet saintly,\u201d Francis told Televisa. \u201cA person can have money. God gives it to him so he can administer it well, and this man administered it well. [He did so] not with paternalism, but by fostering the growth of people who needed help.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fern\u00e1n de Elizalde, a businessman and member of the Christian Association of Business Executives (ACDE) founded by Shaw, told Crux that businesspeople in the United States who feel Francis doesn\u2019t like them are only partially right. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFor many years, it was really hard to get the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires to entertain the idea that there could be a holy businessman,\u201d said Elizalde, who\u2019s also involved with Shaw\u2019s cause for sainthood. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut today we know of Francis\u2019 special recognition for Shaw,\u201d he said. It\u2019s telling that the future pope asked his eventual hand-picked successor in Buenos Aires, Mario Poli, to conduct the theological research into the cause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The process to declare Shaw a saint highlights his concern for the 3,000 employees of a firm called Rigolleau Glassware, which he led, as well as the joy and firmness with which he educated his nine children. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Shaw established a pension fund and a health care system to provide Rigolleau workers with medical services, financial support in case of illness, and loans for important life events such as marriage, birth, and death. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet for Shaw, it wasn\u2019t all business. In the words of his son, the Rev. John Shaw, \u201cI have no idea of how he combined a demanding job and family life, but he did.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n More from Crux <\/p>\n\n\n\n James \u201cWhitey\u201d Bulger (FBI Photo) Shaw also remembers his father praying to have a priest among his children, \u201cand I\u2019m sure he prayed for my siblings to have the vocation to form a family.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Regarding the perception many businesspeople have of Pope Francis as an antagonist, Shaw believes it could be borne from the pope\u2019s tough words, \u201cnot just for businesspeople, but for everyone: priests, family members, cardinals \u2026 He sounds like a loving father who can\u2019t bear seeing his children wasting grace.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Both Shaw and Elizalde quote Francis\u2019 encyclical on the environment, Laudato Si\u2019, as an example of the pontiff praising businesspeople. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In it, Francis says that \u201cbusiness is a noble vocation, directed to producing wealth and improving our world,\u201d especially if \u201cit sees the creation of jobs as an essential part of its service to the common good.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Enrique Shaw was so concerned for his employees that in 1961 he put the sale of his company at risk rather than cut his workforce. An American trust fund that had bought it planned to fire 1,200 employees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Shaw, who was already severely ill, traveled to the United States to successfully propose a recovery plan that saved the jobs of all the workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Stories about his concern for his employees are abundant, but few make the point better than this: When he was close to death, the factory\u2019s employees were asked to donate blood. More than 260 people showed up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Upon his recovery, Shaw said he was happy because \u201cI always wanted to have workers\u2019 blood.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n He was also famously friendly to his competitors, since he saw them not as a threat, but as a source of employment for those he couldn\u2019t hire. <\/p>\n\n\n\n His sales manager, Dario Cassinelli, has said that in a moment of crisis in Argentina, he proposed to Shaw that he try to corner the market to force other companies out of business, but he refused. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHe didn\u2019t want to leave others out of a job,\u201d said Sara Shaw de Critto, his daughter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n That might be an idealistic way to conduct business, but it\u2019s certainly got one competitive advantage as an express route to the pope\u2019s heart. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whitey Bulger, \u2018Black Mass,\u2019 and Catholicism
The younger Shaw, an Opus Dei priest who\u2019s been a missionary in Kenya since 1979, told Crux that he remembers greeting his father in the evening when he would arrive home, and saying goodbye after dinner because his father would return to work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n