Kevin Farrell
Irish-American Roman Catholic cardinal · Peru · Religious Figures · Born 1947 · age 79
Kevin Farrell is read about 340 times a day, in 30 languages.
A typical day, 30 days to 29 October 2026
The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 104 days, one point a day.
Something wrong?An Irish-born cardinal who became the Church's top administrator for lay Catholics, then stepped into a role few see coming: running Vatican City during the brief, strange vacancy between popes.
A life in dates
Also in Deutsch
Photos 3
In their own words 3
, While the Catholic Church cannot bless unions that are not sacramental marriages, the church will always welcome and accompany everyone, no matter their situation in life.
It is essential and very important that we always open our arms to receive and to accompany all people in their different stages of life and in their different life situations.
I believe that our Holy Father, Pope Francis, has made tremendous progress in the Church, and has changed in many ways the mentality of so many, both clerics and non-clerics.
In their orbit
Sibling: Brian FarrellAbout this person
Kevin Joseph Farrell was born in Ireland on 2 September 1947 and ordained a priest in 1978. He worked as a chaplain and university teacher in Mexico before moving to the United States in 1984, where he spent three decades rising through the American hierarchy - auxiliary bishop in Washington from 2002 to 2007, then Bishop of Dallas until 2017. Made a cardinal in 2016, he was appointed prefect of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life that same year, overseeing the Vatican's engagement with ordinary Catholics worldwide. In 2019 he was named Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church, the office that manages the transition when a pope dies, and in 2024 became president of the Supreme Court of Vatican City. When Pope Francis died on 21 April 2025, Farrell became regent of Vatican City, holding the interim administration until Leo XIV was elected on 8 May.
