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Dec. 19, 2025 : On Thursday, 18 December, during an audience with Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Pope Leo XIV authorised the promulgation of the decrees concerning 12 new Blesseds.

Eleven – nine seminarians, a diocesan priest, and a layman – were martyred during the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s. The twelve, Enrique Ernesto Shaw, was a family man, from Argentina, an entrepreneur who died in 1962.

The Holy Father also advanced the causes of two Italian religious, Fra Berardo Atonna and Sister Domenica Caterina dello Spirito Santo; and an Indian priest, Fr Joseph Panjikaran, according them the title “venerable” with the recognition of their heroic virtue.

The Spanish martyrs

The eleven Spanish martyrs were killed between 1936 and 1937 during the violent anti-Christian persecution of that period in Spain, in the territory of the current dioceses of Madrid, Getafe and Alcalá de Henares.

All of them were murdered out of hatred for the faith: their martyrdom took place in the anti-Catholic climate of those years in Spain. Extensive documentation demonstrates the seminarians’ clear willingness to give their lives for God, aware of the anti-Christian hatred unleashed against members of the Church. Remaining close to their families and friends without hiding, despite the danger, their reputation for martyrdom spread immediately and continues to this day.

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.

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. 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.

(Source : Vatican News)