OXFORD, England (CNS) – Spain’s newest cardinal has said his appointment confirms the pope’s determination to keep religious orders center stage in the Church’s life and mission.

“The religious have faced a certain incomprehension and relegation – so pronouncements by Pope Francis, who’s never concealed his Jesuit identity, on the harmony of vocations are significant,” said Cardinal-designate Aquilino Bocos Merino, a former superior general of the Claretian order.

“Laypeople should also have a strong place in the charism of various congregations. … With their help, I’m sure we can gain new enrichment,” he said at a May 22 press conference in Madrid.

The 80-year-old cardinal-designate, who will be elevated during a consistory at the Vatican June 28, said he had felt “overwhelmed” on hearing the news of his nomination via the radio, but also reassured by the pontiff’s personal support for religious orders.

“Here in Madrid, encouragement is given every day, without great speeches, to the bonding of priests, religious and laity,” he said.

“The pope has made extraordinary gestures towards the religious, which could not have been expected during other pontificates, when many felt rejected in some ecclesial spaces,” he said.

In a May 21 interview with the Alfa y Omega Catholic weekly, the cardinal-designate said he believed that the prospects for religious life had “never been better,” but cautioned that order members were challenged to be “true witnesses of Gospel joy.”

“It’s all very well to speak of participation, communion and dialogue, but applying this requires coherence of life and missionary audacity,” he said.

“When people say we are too few to go out into the world, I respond that if the Apostles had made such a calculation they would still be arguing today.”