Cardinal Kevin Farrell is the acting head of the Vatican
Auxiliary Bishop of Washington, Farrell was nominated as the camerlengo by Pope John Paul II in 2018, and he visited Dallas with his wife, Theodore McCarrick
Farrell was appointed an auxiliary bishop of Washington by Pope John Paul II. He was appointed bishop of Dallas in 2007, but before that he had served as the chief vicar general and the curia.
He was ordained a priest on Dec. 24, 1978, and began his career serving as chaplain at the University of Monterrey in Mexico. He moved to the US in 1984 to work for the archdiocese of Washington.
Farrell, 77, was born in September, 1947 in Dublin, and after completing secondary school went on to attend the University of Salamanca in Spain and the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.
Farrell, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was nominated as the camerlengo by Pope Francis in 2019. What do you know about him?
Those tasks include verifying the pope’s death, destroying the late pope’s symbolic fisherman ring and preparing the conclave, the process by which a new pope is elected.
“My administrative assistant, came in and said, ‘The Pope’s on the telephone, and I felt like saying, ‘Yeah, yeah,'” Farrell said at a press conference at the time, according to the local NBC affiliate. After she put on the Pope, she told me that he would like me to go to Rome because Dallas needed a better Bishop.
He was nominated as camerlengo in 2019, appointed as president of the Commission for Confidential Matters in 2020 and appointed as president of the Vatican City State Supreme Court effective January 2024.
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 determined he had molested adults and children.
Also in 2018, Farrell was criticized for allegedly barring a group called Voices of Faith from holding its fourth annual Women’s Day event inside the Vatican.
Some people, including members of the group, believed the reason was that several of the would-be speakers — including former Irish President Mary McAleese — openly supported same-sex marriage, among other issues.
He said that it was not appropriate for him to sponsor such a thing after he was told what the event was about. “Obviously, when I withdrew the sponsorship of the event it couldn’t be inside the Vatican.”
Farrell has said publicly that while the church cannot bless same-sex unions, that no one should be excluded from the “pastoral care and love of the Church.”
Public viewing for Pope Francis begins Wednesday ahead of Saturday funeral: a dream of a Mexican tourist who visited St. Peter’s Square to say goodbye
The Times reports that only two camerlengos have been elected pope before: Gioacchino Pecci, as Pope Leo XIII in 1878, and Eugenio Pacelli, as Pope Pius XII in 1939.
Three months ago a tourist from Guadalajara, Mexico was on the wait list for a group audience with Pope Francis. She’d prayed to him after being diagnosed with leukemia in 2017. Now in remission, she’s made pilgrimage to the Vatican, to give thanks.
“It was a dream of mine, to meet him. “Now we have to say goodbye,” Telles says, walking down St. Peter’s Square with a holy book in her hands.
Faithful from around the world are pouring into the Vatican to mourn Francis, who died Monday of a stroke and ‘cardiocirculatory collapse.’ He was 88. public viewing of his body will begin on Wednesday in St Peter’s Basilica after his body is taken to the Vatican hotel where he lived.
Ahead of that, tourists and locals lit candles and placed flowers, sympathy cards and children’s drawings around a pillar in St. Peter’s Square, and sang hymns.
The Vatican has revealed the first pictures of Francis, the late pope, before he arrives for his funeral at 10 a.m. local time
“He was a very caring father, and revolutionary pope,” says Maria Munoz, 51, a tourist from Alicante, Spain. He tried to change things in the church that was old.
The pope’s funeral will take place at 10 a.m. local time on Saturday, according to the Vatican.
In a break from tradition, Francis’ last testament stipulates that his burial will not be in St. Peter’s Basilica, but instead in the Basilica of Saint Mary Major, a smaller church in a bustling immigrant-area of Rome.
After every foreign trip, Francis would visit the basilica to pray before a Byzantine-style painting of the Virgin Mary. He was last there about 10 days ago.
The president and his wife will travel to Rome for the funeral. “We look forward to being there!” Trump posted on social media. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office said he would also attend.
The Vatican released the first pictures of the pope on Tuesday, in a red velvet lined open casket. Two Swiss Guards in striped uniforms stand next to him. Pietro Parolin, the secretary of state for the Vatican, is praying with him. The pope wears red vestments.
A book titled “A waiting a new Beginning”, written by Cardinal Angelo Scola, the auxiliary bishop of Milan, was released by the Vatican Publishing House. Reflections on Old Age.”
“We must not be afraid of old age, we must not fear embracing becoming old, because life is life, and sugarcoating reality means betraying the truth of things,” the late pope wrote.
Source: Public viewing for Pope Francis begins Wednesday ahead of Saturday funeral
Cardinals in the Vatican and the Secret Voting Conclave on Pontiffs’ Next-To-Minimal Residuals
The Vatican’s media office posted video to social media late Monday showing the doors of Francis’ apartment being tied shut with red ribbon, then sealed with red wax.
Some catholic cardinals are on their way to the Vatican. Their conclave is expected to be held within 15 to 20 days of the pope’s death.
They vote, often in several rounds over several days, on who should be the next pontiff. The Sistine Chapel is where their votes are secret.