I find the appointment entirely justified, given that he has turned his parish into a benchmark for Spain. If not the most, it is certainly among the very few most emblematic parishes in the country.
In our homeland there are numerous good parishes, and curiously they all seem to follow the same model with very few differences. Careful liturgy, sound doctrine, confessionals where long lines are common, satisfied faithful who are enthusiastic about their pastor and his priests, total dedication without sparing hours when they are always available. And all of them open for many hours. And with faithful who fill the unexpected moments with their presence. And surprisingly, there is no progressive parish like that. Those are fields of loneliness, a withered hillside. Whereas in the parishes that follow this model, the faithful abound—in Caná, thousands. Some of them coming from other parishes where they do not find what in these is common practice.
The personality of the pastor is very important. That of Jesús Higueras is special and overflowing, and not everyone can approach him, and thus Caná is what it is, but approximations are possible. And there are more and more who approximate. And the good parishes.
I have never understood why people like Higueras have not been promoted to the episcopate—or if I have understood it, it is worse. He would turn the diocese entrusted to him into another Caná. His organizational skills are extraordinary. But it seems they prefer to make bishops of mediocrities, with the lamentable results we so often see.
Pozuelo has recognized the extraordinary merits of the pastor of Caná and all he has done for Pozuelo, and not only spiritually. It is a pity that in the Vatican there are no experts like those in the City Council, which has just named Higueras adoptive son of Pozuelo.