Cardinal Kevin Joseph Farrell is a progressive Irish American prelate and former Legionary of Christ who is currently Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church, responsible for the running of Vatican City during the interregnum period between two popes.

He is a much-trusted papal administrator who has been appointed to a number of significant positions as well as serving as prefect for the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life.

Born on September 2, 1947, in Dublin, Ireland, after completing primary and secondary school, he attended the University of Salamanca in Spain and the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. Farrell holds a licentiate in philosophy and theology from the University of St. Thomas in Rome and, unusually for a cleric, has a Master of Business Administration which he obtained from the University of Notre Dame.

In 1966, Farrell entered the Congregation of the Legionaries of Christ and was ordained a priest on December 24, 1978. He has since held numerous significant positions within the Church hierarchy.

After his ordination, Farrell began his service as a chaplain at the University of Monterrey in Mexico, where he conducted seminars in bioethics and social ethics. In the early 1980s, he left the Legionaries of Christ for reasons which he later stated were due to “intellectual differences” he had with them. His departure from the Legion occurred long before the scandals surrounding the order’s founder, Marcial Maciel, came to light. Farrell has always maintained that he never knew anything about Maciel’s misconduct during his time with the order.

After leaving the Legion, he transitioned to the Archdiocese of Washington, where he served in various parishes and held significant administrative roles. His responsibilities included director of the Spanish Catholic Center, acting director of Catholic Charities, and secretary of finance.

In 2001, Farrell was appointed vicar general and an auxiliary bishop of Washington. During that time, from 2002 to 2006, Farrell shared a residence with then-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick and worked with him as his vicar general. Despite his length of time in close proximity to McCarrick, Cardinal Farrell has consistently maintained he had no knowledge of disgraced former cardinal’s past sexual abuse, saying he was “shocked” when he heard the allegations, and had “never heard any rumors” about the abuse.

In 2007, Pope Benedict XVI appointed him as the bishop of the Diocese of Dallas, where he served for a decade. During that time he made a significant positive impact on the diocese: He was credited with helping move the diocese past previous scandals and to “a better place” according to local Catholics, and was seen as a skilled administrator and “fixer” who helped clean up and stabilize the diocese.

In 2016, Pope Francis appointed Farrell as the prefect of the newly established Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, marking his transition to a high-ranking Vatican position. Francis elevated Farrell to the rank of cardinal later that year.

In a show of further trust in the cardinal, Pope Francis has appointed Farrell to other numerous positions of responsibility, first as Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church on February 14, 2019, and the following year, President of the Commission for Confidential Matters. In 2022, Francis appointed him President of the Committee for Investments in June 2022. On January 1, 2024, Farrell was appointed as President of the Court of Cassation of the Vatican City State.

However, he has not always acted with the propriety some might expect. In 2019, it was revealed that Farrell had received $29,000 from Bishop Michael J. Bransfield for apartment renovations in Rome. While Farrell reportedly returned the money when improprieties came to light, the incident raised eyebrows about financial practices among high-ranking clergy.

In 2018, Farrell stirred controversy by stating that priests have “no credibility” when it comes to marriage preparation. He argued that priests “have never lived the experience” and therefore may not be the best people to train others for marriage. He made similar comments a year earlier when he said priests have “no credibility when it comes to living the reality of marriage.”

Despite these controversies, Farrell appears to have won even more trust from Pope Francis who continues to award him with significant responsibilities in the Vatican.

He was given another significant responsibility in November 2024 when Pope Francis appointed him the “sole administrator” to oversee vital reform of the Vatican’s pension system. Cardinal George Pell, the former prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy, frequently warned that the Vatican’s pension system was unsustainable. Among the curia’s senior officials, Farrell is reputed by some in the Vatican as being the most competent in administrative and financial matters.

Farrell is very much of the same mind as Francis when it comes to the Church’s pastoral teaching and they have a shared vision for the Church. In particular, he expressed support for Pope Francis’ approach to Holy Communion for the divorced and remarried. Farrell stated that Amoris Laetitia — Pope Francis’ controversial apostolic exhortation on family issues — is “the Holy Spirit speaking” and that it is faithful to Church doctrine while carrying forward the teachings of previous popes.

He is a keen promoter of synodality, viewing it as a crucial process for improving dialogue, listening, community discernment, and shared apostolate. Farrell also emphasizes the importance of lay involvement and the need for the Church to acknowledge past mistakes as it moves forward in this synodal path.

Farrell believes that women “need to have a voice and a say” in the Church and during a penitential service before the 2023 Synod on Synodality, he asked for forgiveness for sins against women, expressing shame for times when the Church “has not recognized and defended the dignity of women.”

The Irish-American cardinal has a markedly open and normalizing approach to homosexually active people, stressing in 2021 that they “must never be excluded from the pastoral care and love and concern of the Church.” He is also not opposed to the involvement of LGBT advocates at Church events, as occurred in 2018 when such an advocate accompanied Farrell at the closing Mass of the pastoral congress of the World Meeting of Families in Dublin.

Farrell also joined fellow Cardinals Joseph Tobin and Robert McElroy in publicly praising Fr. James Martin’s 2017 book on building bridges with the LGBT community, calling it a “much-needed book.” Critics said the book failed to clearly explain or defend the Church’s teaching on homosexuality and sexual ethics, and that Martin endorsed organizations previously censured by Church authorities.