Cardinal Kevin Farrell, who ran the Vatican after the Pope's death
Cardinal Kevin Farrell, who announced Pope Francis's death on the morning of April 21, is now acting as interim leader of the Vatican until a new pope is elected.
According to CNN and NPR, Cardinal Kevin Farrell was born in Dublin, Ireland but became a US citizen after many years of service in this country.
Cardinal Farrell, the former Bishop of Dallas, is the regent, in charge of the pope's finances and temporal affairs, and is currently the head of the Vatican while a pope dies or resigns while a new one is elected. He held a series of Vatican positions before being nominated by Pope Francis to the regent position in 2019.
Cardinal Farrell, 77, studied at the University of Salamanca in Spain, the Gregorian University in Rome, Italy, and has a master's degree in business administration from the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, USA. He has degrees in philosophy and theology from the University of St. Thomas in Rome.
According to Cardinal Farrell's Vatican biography, he was ordained a priest on December 24, 1978, and began his career as a chaplain at the University of Monterrey in Mexico. He moved to the United States to join the Archdiocese of Washington in 1984.
Mr. Farrell's expertise caught the attention of Pope Francis and made him one of his most trusted associates.
In 2016, Pope Francis appointed Bishop Dallas Farrell to head the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life. Later that year, the Pope made him a cardinal and continued to elevate him to new positions. Three years later, the Pope chose him again for the important and sensitive position of Cardinal Camerlengo.
Cardinal Farrell is the highest-ranking American bishop in the Catholic Church's central administration and is known for his decisive decision-making and good organization. Cardinal Farrell is fluent in English and Spanish, the two most widely spoken languages in the Catholic Church. He also speaks Italian and Irish Gaelic.
Cardinal Farrell has been linked to a notorious figure. From 2002 to 2006, he worked and lived with Theodore McCarrick, a once-powerful cardinal who was stripped of his position by Pope Francis in 2019 for sexually harassing both adults and children.
The regent position does not disqualify Cardinal Farrell from becoming Pope. According to the Times, there have been two cardinal regents elected as Pope: Cardinal Gioacchino Pecci, elected Pope Leo XIII in 1878, and Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, elected Pope Pius XII in 1939. In the history of the Vatican, no pope has come from the United States or Ireland.
