Manuel Arteaga y Betancourt

Manuel Arteaga y Betancourt (December 28, 1879 – March 20,

His Eminence
1963) was a Cuban Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He
served as Archbishop of Havana from 1941 until his death, and was Manuel Arteaga y
elevated to the cardinalate in 1946 by Pope Pius XII. Betancourt
Cardinal, Archbishop of San
Cristóbal de la Habana
Contents
Biography
Trivia
References
External links

Biography
He was born in Camagüey to Rosendo Arteaga Montejo and his wife
Delia Betancourt Guerra. Baptized as Manuel Francisco del Corazon
de Jesus on April 17, 1880 by Father Vigilio Arteaga, he was
confirmed by Archbishop José María Martín de Herrera y de la
Iglesia on November 17, 1882. His paternal uncle, a priest by the
name of Ricardo Arteaga Montejo, took Manuel to Venezuela in
1892, the former having previously left Cuba for that county for
See Havana
political reasons.
Installed 1941 – 1963
Arteaga obtained his bachelor's in philosophy on June 15, 1898 from
Predecessor José Manuel
Universidad Central de Venezuela, and entered a Capuchin convent
Dámaso Rúiz y
in Caracas in 1900. However, for reasons of health, he left the
convent and entered the Seminary of Santa Rosa de Lima in Caracas Rodríguez
on April 12, 1901. Successor Evelio Díaz-Cía
Other posts Previously
Receiving the subdiaconate and diaconate in 1902, Arteaga was
eventually ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop Juan Bautista Archbishop of
Castro on April 17, 1904. He did pastoral work in Cumaná from Havana
1906 to 1912, and then in Camagüey until 1915. Before becoming Orders
Canon Schoolmaster in 1916, Arteaga was named provisor and vicar
Created 18 February 1946
general of the Archdiocese of Havana 1915. He was raised to the
rank of Domestic Prelate of His Holiness on May 31, 1926, and cardinal
Vicar Capitular of Havana on January 3, 1940. Personal details
Born 28 December 1879
On December 28, 1941, Arteaga was appointed Archbishop of
Havana and thus Primate of the Church in Cuba by Pope Pius XII. Camagüey, Cuba
He received his episcopal consecration on February 24, 1942 from Died 20 March 1963
Archbishop Giorgio Caruana, with Archbishop Manuel Zubizarreta Havana, Cuba
y Unamunsaga, OCD, and Bishop Eduardo Martínez y Dalmau, CP,
Coat of
serving as co-consecrators, in the Cathedral of Havana.
Pope Pius XII created him Cardinal Priest of San Lorenzo in Lucina arms
in the consistory of February 18, 1946, and thus the first Cuban
member of the College of Cardinals. Arteaga suffered a wound to his
forehead in August 1953, reported by the censored press to be from
a fall in his archiepiscopal residence, and required twenty stitches.[1] Styles of
The Cardinal, in a pastoral letter that September, later explained that Manuel Arteaga y
his injury was "a common criminal attempt" by a group of strangers, Betancourt
putting to rest the suspicions that he had been pistol-whipped by
governmental agents who were searching his residence for hidden
revolutionaries or weapons.[2]

He was one of the cardinal

electors who participated in
the 1958 papal conclave,
which selected Pope John
XXIII. Persecuted by the
Communist regime of Fidel
Castro, the Primate took
refuge in the Argentine
embassy and the Cuban Reference style His Eminence
His gravesite taken in August 2007
nunciature from 1961 to Spoken style Your Eminence
1962, when he was
hospitalized at San Juan de Informal style Cardinal
Dios Hospital in Havana. See Havana

Arteaga died at the same hospital a year later, at age 83. He is buried in the Colon Cemetery.

Trivia
Arteaga was a proponent of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista, whom he and other laypersons
congratulated on taking power[3]
He vehemently disapproved of tight and low-cut women's fashions, even forbidding such attire
at weddings under pain of the ceremony's suspension.[4]

References
1. TIME Magazine. The Cardinal's Forehead (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,
818818,00.html) September 7, 1953
2. TIME Magazine. Rest & Recuperation (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,8906
57,00.html) September 21, 1953
3. Crahan, Margaret E (1985). "Cuba: Religion and Revolutionary Institutionalization". Journal of
Latin American Studies. 17 (2): 319–340. JSTOR 156825
(https://www.jstor.org/stable/156825).
4. TIME Magazine. Word from the Cardinal (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,79
9688,00.html) January 24, 1949

External links
Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church (http://www.fiu.edu/~mirandas/bios-a.htm#Arteaga)
Catholic-Hierarchy (http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/barteaga.html)
 Catholic Church titles
Preceded by Archbishop of San Cristóbal de la
Succeeded by
José Manuel Dámaso Rúiz Habana
Evelio Díaz-Cía
y Rodríguez 1941 – 1963

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This page was last edited on 17 October 2019, at 17:40 (UTC).

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