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Pope Pius XII created him Cardinal Priest of "Santi Cosma e Damiano" in the consistory of January 12, 1953. Luque, the first Colombian cardinal, was papal legate to the third National Marian Congress in 1954, and attended the first general conference of the Latin American Episcopal Conference in 1955. In 1951, he formally asked the Ministry of Education to remove José Rodriguez's paintings, which contained nude subjects, from the National Museum. Luque also played a prominent role in the civil and political crisis that affected his country from 1949 to 1958, and participated in the 1958 papal conclave that selected Pope John XXIII.