Cardinal Kevin Farrell, Camerlengo of the Apostolic Chamber, introduced the dying of Pope Francis from the Casa Santa Marta in Vatican Metropolis on Monday.
Vatican Pool/Getty Photographs
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Vatican Pool/Getty Photographs
Cardinal Kevin Farrell, who introduced Pope Francis’ death on Monday morning, is now the appearing head of the Vatican till a brand new pope is elected.
There is a identify for the particular person with that job: the camerlengo.
In accordance to Britannica, the cardinal camerlengo in Roman Catholicism is a key dignitary of the Vatican who’s personally appointed by the pope and tasked with “a particular collection of capabilities within the essential time of transition from one pope to his successor.”
These duties embrace verifying the pope’s dying, destroying the late pope’s symbolic fisherman ring and preparing the conclave, the method by which a brand new pope is elected.
Farrell, a Dublin-born, naturalized U.S. citizen, held a collection of positions on the Vatican earlier than Pope Francis nominated him because the camerlengo in 2019. This is what to learn about him.
He spent a lot of his profession within the U.S.
Farrell, 77, was born in September, 1947 in Dublin, and after finishing secondary college went on to attend the College of Salamanca in Spain and the Pontifical Gregorian College in Rome.
He was ordained a priest on Dec. 24, 1978, and started his profession serving as chaplain on the College of Monterrey in Mexico. He moved to the U.S. to hitch the Archdiocese of Washington in 1984, in accordance with his Vatican biography.
Farrell held a collection of positions in a number of parishes within the space, together with director of the Spanish Catholic Middle, appearing government director of the Catholic Charitable Organizations and secretary for monetary affairs.
Pope John Paul II appointed Farrell as an auxiliary bishop of Washington in 2001. He served as Washington’s moderator of the curia and chief vicar normal till 2007, when he was appointed bishop of Dallas.
He rose rapidly via the ranks on the Vatican
In 2016, Pope Francis appointed Farrell because the prefect of the newly established Dicastery for Laity, Household and Life.
“My administrative assistant, got here in and mentioned, ‘The Pope’s on the phone, and I felt like saying, ‘Yeah, yeah,'” Farrell mentioned at a press convention on the time, in accordance with the native NBC affiliate. “Finally she did placed on the Pope, and he informed me that he would love me to go to Rome as a result of Dallas wanted a significantly better Bishop than I’m.”
The pope named Farrell a cardinal later that very same yr, and continued to raise him to positions within the Vatican.
He was nominated as camerlengo in 2019, appointed as president of the Fee for Confidential Issues in 2020 and appointed as president of the Vatican Metropolis State Supreme Court docket efficient January 2024.
He has weathered controversies over time
Farrell has been in shut proximity to scandal — and scandalous figures — throughout his profession.
Notably, from 2002 to 2006, he worked and lived with Theodore McCarrick, a once-powerful Catholic cardinal who was defrocked by Pope Francis in 2019 after a Vatican investigation decided he had molested adults and youngsters.
After these allegations got here to gentle in 2018, Farrell publicly mentioned he had not identified or suspected something about McCarrick’s habits.
Additionally in 2018, Farrell was criticized for allegedly barring a bunch referred to as Voices of Religion from holding its fourth annual Ladies’s Day occasion contained in the Vatican.
Some individuals, together with members of the group, believed the rationale was that a number of of the would-be audio system — together with former Irish President Mary McAleese — overtly supported same-sex marriage, amongst different points.
When requested in regards to the controversy at an unrelated occasion weeks later, Farrell didn’t go into a lot element in regards to the cause behind his determination.
“Having been informed subsequently that I did sponsor that occasion and having been informed subsequently what the occasion was about, it was not applicable for me to proceed to sponsor such an occasion,” he mentioned, in accordance with the French newspaper LaCroix International. “Clearly, once I withdrew the sponsorship of the occasion it could not be contained in the Vatican.”
Farrell has said publicly that whereas the church can’t bless same-sex unions, that nobody ought to be excluded from the “pastoral care and love of the Church.”
May Farrell be the following pope?
Farrell’s place as camerlengo does not inherently disqualify or prime him for the place of pope.
The Times reports that solely two camerlengos have been elected pope earlier than: Gioacchino Pecci, as Pope Leo XIII in 1878, and Eugenio Pacelli, as Pope Pius XII in 1939.
There has by no means been a pope from Eire or the U.S.
