This Day in Cuban History – January 28, 1879. Cardinal Manuel Arteaga was born

Born in Puerto Principe (now Camagüey), January 28, Cardinal Manuel Arteaga studied theology and civil law from 1892 at the University of Caracas, Venezuela. After his 1904 ordination he became foreign curate at Cumaná and later Canon in the Cathedral of Guyana.  In 1910 he represented the Archdiocese of Caracas at the Madrid Eucharistic Congress, contributing a report.  Afterwards he returned to Camagüey as parish priest at the Iglesia de la Caridad.  Later he became provisor and vicar general of the Archbishopric of Havana, and in 1941 succeeded to the see.  In 1946 he was made a cardinal.  Preferring diplomacy to opposition, he congratulated Fulgencio Batista on his seizing power in 1952 and was with him on ceremonial occasions.  After the Revolution of 1959 and the subsequent reduction in church personnel, Cardinal Arteaga, old and feeble, tried to develop an accommodation with the regime, but he succeeded only in maintaining a much smaller and weaker institution on the island.  From November 14, 1959 until his death on March 20, 1963, he was effectively in retirement.