Pope names Irish-born cardinal to run Vatican in papal transition period

Pope Francis on Thursday named the Irish-American cardinal Kevin Farrell as the new “camerlengo”, the prelate who runs the Vatican between the death or resignation of a pontiff and the election of a new one.

Farrell (71), who was in born in Ireland, succeeds the French cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, who died in July. A Dubliner who spent most of his clerical life in the United States, Cardinal Farrell is the most senior Irishman at the Vatican.

He was the Vatican official with responsibility for co-ordinating efforts around the World Meeting of Families 2018 in Dublin in August 2018 that included a visit by Pope Francis.

In 2018, the Vatican barred former president Mary McAleese from taking part in a conference in Italy to mark International Women’s Day after her attendance was opposed by Cardinal Farrell, previously prefect (head) of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life.

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His older brother, Bishop Brian Farrell (73), is secretary to the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and has worked at the Vatican since 1981. Both men are from Drimnagh and were educated by the Christian Brothers, and neither has served as a priest in Ireland.

The camerlengo, or chamberlain, runs the ordinary affairs of the Vatican city-state during the period known as the “sede vacante” (empty seat).

While the position is steeped in tradition and rituals, he cannot make any major decisions and cannot change Church teachings.

In the case of a papal death, the camerlengo is the person who officially confirms it, traditionally by tapping the pontiff’s head three times with a silver hammer and calling out his name. He then seals the papal residence and office.

Cardinal Farrell was born in September 1947 and joined the Legionaries of Christ in 1966. He studied theology at the University of Salamanca in Spain, the Gregorian University and the Angelicum in Rome, as well as business and administration at the University of Notre Dame in the United States.

He has served most of his priestly life in the Americas. Ordained in 1978, he served as chaplain at the Catholic University of Monterrey in Mexico while also acting as general administrator of the Legionaries of Christ with responsibilities for seminaries and schools in Italy, Spain and Ireland.

In 1984, by which time he had left the Legionaries of Christ, he became a priest of the US archdiocese of Washington and in 1986 succeeded then Fr (now Cardinal Archbishop of Boston) Seán O’Malley as director of the Washington archdiocese’s Spanish Catholic Centre.

In December 2001 he was named auxiliary bishop of Washington and in March 2007 was appointed Bishop of Dallas.

In August 2016 he was appointed prefect of the Vatican’s newly created Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life and created Cardinal by Pope Francis in November 2016. – additional reporting Reuters