How To Center Text

Using “code” tags.</p>
<p>In the current theme I have, for the footer section it says</p>
<p>You can add custom HTML and/or shortcodes, which will be automatically inserted into your theme.
Some shorcodes: [the-year], [site-link], [wp-link], [th-link] for current year, your site link, wordpress site link and attitude site link respectively.
It is completely optional, but if you like the Theme We would appreciate it if you keep the credit link at the bottom.</p>
<p>But when I try to add “<center>”, nothing happens. How do I use the “code” tags to center it?`