Antonio Cañizares was born in Utiel, and studied at the minor and major seminaries in Valencia and at the Pontifical University of Salamanca, from where he obtained his doctorate in theology, specializing in catechesis.

He was ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop José García Lahiguera on 21 June 1970, and then served as assistant pastor and delegate for catechesis in the Archdiocese of Valencia.

He later became the director and a professor of the Institute of Religious Science and Catechesis in Madrid, and sat on several commissions and secretariats of the Spanish Episcopal Conference as well.

He received his episcopal consecration on the following 25 April from Archbishop Mario Tagliaferri, with Cardinals Ángel Suquía Goicoechea and Marcelo González Martín serving as co-consecrators, in the Cathedral of Ávila.

Cañizares Llovera later became a member of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in the Roman Curia on 10 November 1996, and was named Archbishop of Granada on 10 December of that same year.

In addition to his duties in Granada, he was Apostolic Administrator of Cartagena from January to October 1998, and was elected President of the Episcopal Commission of Education and Catechesis in 1999.

Cardinal Canizares Llovera confirmed this at an address at the Spanish Embassy to the Holy See on "Catholic Liturgy since Vatican II: Continuity and Evolution."

During his talk the cardinal reiterated the importance Vatican II gave to the liturgy, "whose renewal must be understood in continuity with the Tradition of the Church and not as a break or discontinuity."