After completing his initial studies at Colegio de la Consolación in Burriana, he attended the seminaries in Tortosa and Valencia.

Pope Paul VI created him Cardinal Priest of S. Giovanni Crisostomo a Monte Sacro Alto in the consistory of 28 April 1969.

He also acted as President of the Spanish Episcopal Conference the same year (also to finish the three-years term of his predecessor Morcillo) before being formally elected in February 1972.

In this position, he had to confront the difficult last years of the Francoist State and of caudillo Francisco Franco, in which relationships between Government and Church were tense.

As a close ally of Pope Paul VI, Tarancón was seen as an enemy by the most radical far-right Francoist elements.