Dublin-born Kevin Farrell has assumed the leadership of Roman Catholic Church following the death of Pope Francis, at the age of 88.
Daily Intel reported that former pontiff Francis passed away on Monday after suffering ‘cerebral hemorrhage’, possibly a stroke, which is said to be unrelated to the respiratory problems and pneumonia he suffered in February.
Ferrell, an Irish-American Cardinal, who is the highest-ranking Catholic in the world after Pope Francis will now lead the Catholic Church in finding the pontiff’s successor.
Farrell, who served as a bishop of the Diocese of Dallas in Texas for nearly a decade, was appointed as Vatican camerlengo, or chamberlain, by late Francis in February 2019.
According to tradition, who ever is the camerlengo takes charge after a pontiff’s death and handles daily administration and finances of the tiny Vatican City state during the ‘interregnum’, the gap period between the leadership of one pope to the next.
The camerlengo is also responsible for certifying the pope’s death, announcing his passing to the world – which Farrell did this morning – and sealing the papal apartments, as well as preparing the pontiff’s burial.
Farrell, who will remain in charge until a new pope is elected, will preside over the first formal liturgical ritual for Francis tonight at 8pm, with the confirmation of his death and the placement of the body in the coffin.
In the next four to six days the Vatican’s cardinals will decide on the pope’s funeral date, at which point his coffin will be transferred to St Peter’s Basilica.
Francis’s death also sets in motion centuries-old traditions that will culminate in the gathering of a conclave of cardinals to choose a successor.
Farrell, 77, was born in Ireland in 1947, but spent much of his religious career in the United States.
He attended the University of Salamanca in Spain and the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome before being ordained as a priest in 1978.
Farrell served as chaplain in Mexico before taking his ministry work to Washington. He was appointed as the auxiliary bishop of Washington by Pope John Paul II in 2001.
He held several senior positions over the years, including being named the Bishop of Dallas by Pope Benedict XVI in 2007.
Francis summoned Farrell to work in the Vatican in August 2016, announcing that Farrell would serve as Prefect of the then-newly established Vatican Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life.
Farrell at a press conference after his appointment said that he was shocked by the appointment and ‘humbled’ that Francis ‘would entrust me with this new department’.
He recalled how he was in disbelief when his administrative assistant told him that the pope was on the phone.
‘I felt like saying, “Yeah, yeah”,’ he told the 2016 press briefing. ‘Eventually she did put on the Pope, and he told me that he would like me to go to Rome because Dallas needed a much better Bishop than I am.’
Farrell was elevated to Cardinal that same year and, just three years later, was entrusted with the role of Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church.
Francis also named him president of the Commission for Confidential Matters in 2020.
Farrell has officially began his as duties as camerlengo, having this morning announced the pope’s death in a video statement.
‘At 7:35 this morning, the Bishop of Rome, Francis, returned to the home of the Father,’ he told the faithful in the statement released by the Vatican. ‘His entire life was dedicated to the service of the Lord and of his Church’
The Vatican in a statement has since confirmed that Farrell will tonight lead the ceremony in which Francis’s body is placed in its coffin in the chapel at the Saint Martha residence, where the pontiff lived.
“Following the notification of the death of the Roman Pontiff Francis, in accordance with the provisions of the Ordo Exsequiarum Romani Pontificis, this evening, Monday 21 April, at 20.00, His Reverend Eminence Cardinal Kevin Joseph Farrell, Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church, will preside over the rite of the certification of death and the laying of the body in the coffin”.
The Vatican indicated that the Dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, and the late pope’s family members of the late Pope Francis, along with Dr. Andrea Arcangeli and Dr. Luigi Carbone, the Director and Deputy Director of the Directorate of Health and Hygiene, will be present this evening.
