Kevin Farrell

Cardinal coat of arms of Kevin Farrell (since 2016)

Episcopal coat of arms of Kevin Joseph Farrell (until 2016)

Kevin Joseph Cardinal Farrell (born September 2, 1947 in Dublin ) is an Irish-born American clergyman and prefect of the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life . He has also been Cardinal Chamberlain of the Holy Roman Church since February 2019 .

Life

Kevin Farrell attended the High School of the Irish Christian Brothers in Drimnagh, Dublin. He left Ireland at the age of 16 and joined the Congregation of the Legionaries of Christ in 1966 . He first studied at the Spanish Pontifical University of Salamanca , where the Legionaries of Christ maintain their religious studies, then philosophy and Catholic theology in Rome at the Gregoriana and the Angelicum as well as economics and business administration at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana . Farrell received on 24 December 1978 in Rome, the sacrament of Holy Orders . As a religious priest he was a university chaplain at the ecclesiastical Universidad de Monterrey in Monterrey (Mexico), where he also taught bioethics and social ethics . As general administrator, he was also responsible for the seminars and schools of his community in Italy , Spain and Ireland. In Monterrey he met several times with the founder of the order, Marcial Maciel , who lived there and said he knew nothing about his double life.

Since the 1980s he has supported the Archdiocese of Washington in caring for Spanish-speaking priests. Between 1981 and 1984 he left his religious order "because of differences of opinion" and was subsequently incardinated as a diocesan priest in the Archdiocese of Washington . There he was pastor at St. Peter in Olney, St. Bartholomew in Bethesda and St. Thomas the Apostle in Washington, DC . In 1986 he was appointed by James Cardinal Hickey to succeed Seán Patrick O'Malley OFMCap as director of the Spanish Catholic Center in Washington, an Archdiocese institution dedicated to serving the Hispanic community and assisting immigrants with legal aid, education, employment and issues medical care. From 1987 to 1988 Farrell was director of the diocesan Caritas Association ( Catholic Charities ); from 1989 to 2001 he was Finance Secretary of the Archdiocese of Washington. 1995 appointed him Pope John Paul II. To the Pontifical honor prelates . After serving as a pastor in northwest Washington, he was appointed Vicar General and Curia Moderator for the Archdiocese in 2001 by the recently introduced Archbishop Theodore Edgar McCarrick .

Pope John Paul II appointed him titular bishop of Rusuccuru and auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of Washington on December 28, 2001 . The episcopal ordination on February 11, 2002 donated the Archbishop of Washington, Theodore Edgar Cardinal McCarrick; Co-consecrators were James Aloysius Cardinal Hickey, Old Archbishop of Washington, and Leonard James Olivier SVD , Auxiliary Bishop of Washington. His episcopal motto is State in Fide (“Remain in faith”, Col 1,23  EU ).

From November 2002 until he took office as Bishop of Dallas in May 2007, Farrell lived as auxiliary bishop with other clerics in an apartment house in Washington, which is the archiepiscopal residence. There he lived in close proximity to Cardinal McCarrick, who headed the archdiocese from 2001 to 2006. Farrell claims not to have found out about McCarrick's earlier sexual misconduct, the discovery of which led to his expulsion from the college of cardinals in 2018 and his discharge from the clergy in 2019, and he claims not to have noticed any inappropriate behavior by his superior.

On March 6, 2007, Kevin Farrell was received by Pope Benedict XVI. appointed Bishop of Dallas ; The inauguration took place on 1 May 2007 in the Cathedral Santuario de Guadalupe in Dallas ( Texas instead).

Farrell served on the board of directors of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network (CLINIC ) and on several committees of the United States Bishops' Conference ( Consecrated Life ; Migration and Hispanic Affairs ). At the beginning of 2016, on the occasion of the permission to carry firearms in Texas openly, he spoke out in principle for a tightening of the US weapons legislation and expressly prohibited the carrying of weapons in all public spaces in which the diocese exercises domestic rights .

On August 15, 2016, Pope Francis appointed him Prefect of the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, established on September 1 of the same year . In the solemn consistory on November 19, 2016, Pope Francis accepted him as a cardinal deacon with the titled deaconry San Giuliano Martire in the college of cardinals . Farrell's call to the Vatican and his creation as a cardinal were seen by observers as part of the effort by Pope Francis in the context of his planned reform of the Curia to achieve a new staffing of the Roman Curia by appointing new staff . Farrell, who did not work at the Curia before 2016 and was not involved in the existing clergy and loyalties in the Vatican, has broad pastoral experience, is considered moderate and is perceived as a supporter of the Pope's theological line.

On December 23, 2017, the Pope appointed him a member of the Pontifical Commission for the State of the Vatican City .

On February 14, 2019, the Pope appointed Kevin Farrell to Camerlengo , that is, Cardinal Chamberlain of the Holy Roman Church. With this Cardinal Farrell would come in the event of a vacancy , i. H. in the event of the death or resignation of the Pope, the task of leading the church's official business until the election of a new Pope. The appointment met with critical reactions because of Farrell's friendship with the abuser Theodore McCarrick, whose last instance conviction was communicated practically at the same time, and in view of the anti-abuse summit convened by the Pope in the Vatican in February 2019 .

After the results of the church investigation against the Irish-American Bishop Michael J. Bransfield, who resigned in 2018 because of financial irregularities, Kevin Farrell announced via the Vatican press office in early June 2019 that he would repay around 29,000 US dollars to the diocese of West Virginia , which he received from Bransfield had been given for the renovation of his apartment in Rome and whose origin from diocese funds was unknown to him.

On July 8, 2019, the Pope appointed him a member of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life for five years . He is also a member of the Cardinals Commission of the Administration of Goods of the Apostolic See . On June 19, 2020, Farrell also became a member of the Pontifical Council on Legal Texts .

In addition to his mother tongue Gaelic and English , Kevin Farrell speaks fluent Spanish and Italian . His older brother Brian Farrell , a member of the Legionaries of Christ since 1961, is Bishop of the Curia and Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity since 2002 .

Web links

• Entry for Kevin Farrell on catholic-hierarchy.org
• Website of Kevin Farell (Diocese of Dallas) ( Memento from May 18, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b c d} Patsy McGarry: Farrell brothers: The two most senior Irish clerics in the Vatican. In: The Irish Times , February 2, 2018, accessed February 16, 2019.
2. ↑ Irish cardinal who barred Mary McAleese from Vatican becomes one of Church's most powerful clerics. In: Irish Independent , February 15, 2019, accessed the same day.
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Paddy Agnew: 'The pope is on the phone,' she said. 'Like hell, he is,' I replied. In: The Irish Times , November 19, 2016, accessed February 16, 2019.
4. ↑ ^{a b c} El Papa nombra al obispo de Dallas primer presidente del Dicasterio para los Laicos, la Familia y la Vida . In: Religión Digital , August 17, 2016, accessed on August 17, 2016 (Spanish).
5. ^ Nomina di Ausiliari di Washington (USA). In: Daily Bulletin. Holy See Press Office , December 28, 2001, accessed October 14, 2016 (Italian). 
6. ↑ McCarrick case: Cardinal Farrell defends himself. In: Katholisch.de , September 6, 2018, accessed on February 16, 2019.
7. ^ Rinuncia del Vescovo di Dallas (USA) e Nomina del Successore. In: Daily Bulletin. Holy See Press Office, March 6, 2007, accessed October 14, 2016 (Italian). 
8. ↑ Los obispos estadounidenses en la línea de Obama . Report in: Religión Digital of January 7, 2016, accessed on August 17, 2016 (Spanish).
9. ^ Nomina del Prefetto del nuovo Dicastero per i Laici, la Famiglia e la Vita. In: Daily Bulletin. Holy See Press Office, August 17, 2016, accessed August 17, 2016 (Italian). 
10. ↑ Concistoro Ordinario Pubblico: Assegnazione dei Titoli o Diaconie. In: Daily Bulletin. Holy See Press Office, November 19, 2016, accessed November 19, 2016 (Italian). 
11. ^ Nomina di Membri dei Dicasteri della Curia Romana. In: Daily Bulletin. Holy See Press Office, December 23, 2017, accessed December 23, 2017 (Italian). 
12. ↑ Pope appoints Cardinal Kevin Farrell as the new Cardinal Chamberlain. Vatican News , February 14, 2019, accessed February 14, 2019 . 
13. ^ Phil Lawler: Cardinal Farrell as camerlengo: an astonishingly ill-timed announcement. In: Catholic Culture.org , February 15, 2019, accessed February 16, 2019.
14. ↑ Chico Harlan, Alice Crites, Andrew Ba Tran: Vatican cardinal, other priests to return cash gifts from ousted West Virginia bishop Michael Bransfield. In: The Washington Post , June 8, 2019, accessed the same day.
15. ^ Nomina di Membri della Congregazione per gli Istituti di vita consacrata e le Società di vita apostolica. In: Daily Bulletin. Holy See Press Office , July 8, 2019, accessed July 9, 2019 (Italian). 
16. ^ Nomine presso il Pontificio Consiglio per i Testi Legislativi. In: Daily Bulletin. Holy See Press Office, June 19, 2020, accessed June 19, 2020 (Italian). 
17. ^ Bishop Kevin Farrell of Dallas named to Vatican Post. News from the Federation of Diocesan Liturgical Commissions , August 17, 2016, accessed on February 16, 2019.

predecessor	Office	successor
Charles Victor Grahmann	Bishop of Dallas 2007-2016	Edward James Burns
Dicastery newly established	Prefect of the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life since 2016	---
Jean-Louis Tauran	Cardinal Chamberlain since 2019	---