Toledo, Spain, Feb 22, 2006 / 22:00 pm
Archbishop Antonio Cañizares Llovera of Toledo, Spain, thanked Pope Benedict XVI this week for his appointment to the College of Cardinals and said that he never saw himself as a “Prince of the Church,” but rather only as “a servant, and nothing more than a servant.”
During a press conference, the future cardinal said his appointment is “a gesture of confidence” in him, in the Archdiocese of Toledo and in the Bishops’ Conference of Spain on the part of the Pope. “This gratitude also extends to the One to whom I owe everything, God our Lord,” he added.
He said he considered it very appropriate that the Holy Father would announce the appointment of new cardinals on the feast of the Chair of St. Peter, given the strong bonds between the College of Cardinals and the Successor of Peter.
The mission of the College of Cardinals, he indicated, “is to collaborate with the Pope in his ministry of confirming the apostolic faith, guaranteeing and strengthening the ecclesial community, presiding through service in charity and spreading hope in the entire Church.”