TORONTO - The man who is about to become one of the most powerful churchmen in Canada has no interest in the trappings of power.

Archbishop Thomas Collins has been a success as a seminary professor and rector, as a bishop in northern Alberta and as a metropolitan archbishop in Edmonton. Church insiders are not surprised Collins was appointed to lead Toronto, Canada's largest and richest Catholic diocese by Pope Benedict XVI on Dec. 16.

A new archbishop has been appointed to the Archdiocese of Toronto. Pope Benedict XVI announced Dec. 16 that he has called on Archbishop Thomas Collins of Edmonton to take the place of the retiring Cardinal Aloysius Ambrozic.

Collins, 59, told The Catholic Register in a telephone interview from Edmonton that he was "very, very honoured by the confidence the Holy Father had in me" to become the 12th bishop of Toronto, which was established in 1842.