Who is the Camerlengo Kevin Farrell and what are his duties

With the death of the Pope and until the end of the Conclave From which the name of the new pontiff will arrive, the vacant headquarters begins, so the period of time in which there is no pontiff is indicated. There are few assignments that remain active in the Vatican. The two vicars do not decay: for the diocese of Rome, Cardinal Baldassarre Reina and the deputygente, the Monsignor Renato Tarantelli, and for the Vatican city Cardinal Mauro Gambetti. The master of the Papal Liturgical Celebrations, the Lombard Diego Ravelli, remains, who will supervise the rites, including the funeral of the Pope. The alms of his holiness, the Polish cardinal Konrad Krajowski, still in office. The major penitentices, cardinal Angelo de Donatis e The Camerlengo, Cardinal Kevin Farrell, to which the ordinary administration is entrusted. To assist him there will be the entire College Cardinals with the dean, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, an over -thectn year old who cannot enter the conclave. Outtevere are in office to take care of “only the business of ordinary administration” the secretaries of the dicasteries, and, in the Secretariat of State, the substitute for general affairs, the Venezuelan Edgar Pena Parra, and the secretary for relations with the States, the British Paul Richard Gallagher.

Who is the Camerlengo

The most important role is that of the Camerlengo who gave the official announcement of the death of Pope Francis. Cardinal Kevin Farrell is of Irish origin. Born in Dublin in 1947, he attended the University of Salamanca and the Gregorian University of Rome. He also attended the Pontifical San Tommaso d’Aquino University, studying philosophy and theology. Entering the Congregation of the Legionaries of Christ in 1966, he was ordained a priest on December 24, 1978 by Cardinal Eduardo Francisco Pirionio.

It also has a master in Business Administration achieved at the University of Notre Dame in the United States. Since the eighties he remained in America, first in Mexico and then in the USA. For a long time he has been in the US capital until he was appointed in 2001 Bishop of the Archdiocese of Washington with a period spent driving the diocese of Dallas. In 2016 he was called by Jorge Bergoglio in Rome as a prefect for the dicastery for lay people, family and life. Since 2019 he has been Camerlengo of Santa Romana Chiesa.

His first task was that of ascertain the death of the pontiffwhich he did at 7 and 35 in the morning of April 21 by calling him three times in the presence of witnesses. The Camerlengo then affixes the seals to the Pope’s study and it is he who burns the pontiff who will happen, as per the testamentary request of Pope Francis, in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore.

During the period of vacant headquarters, it is his task to administer the goods and temporal powers of the Church and ensure during the conclave the confidentiality of the vote. To him the cardinals will have to deliver writings of any kind relating to the outcome of each ballot. These are documents that must be burned. However, the Camerlengo will not announce the new Pope. It’s up to Cardinal ProtodiaCono to say: “Habemus Papam”.

Explains Christian family: «The Camerlengo is assisted by the vice-challengo, the Brazilian archbishop Ilson de Jesus Montanari, who is also secretary of the Cardinal College and, as such, the only non-cardinal to be able to enter conclave, and” by three cardinal assistants, of which one is the Cardinal Coordinator of the Council for the Economy “, the German cardinal Reinhard Marx (as expected the praedic. Evangelium in article 235): the other two are extracted by lot, and turn from the Cardinal College. This is the “particular congregation” which, during the elections, can treat “only the issues of minor importance, which are presented day by day or moment by moment” (University Dominigi Gregis, article 7) “.

The dean of the College of Cardinals

It is Giovanni Battista Re, 91 years old, Originally from Val Camonica. Cardinal since 2001, during the pontificate of John Paul II he held the posts of substitute for general affairs of the Secretariat of State and Prefect of the Congregation of Bishops. The dean, with the help if necessary of the underground, in this case the Italian-Argentine Leonardo Sandri, has the task of giving the news of the end of the pontificate to all cardinals, as well as to the diplomatic body accredited at the Holy See.

He must then convene the general congregations of the cardinals, to prepare the conclave. Cardinal Decano is the one who also presides over the “Pro Eligando Romano Pontifice” Mass before the beginning of the conclave, but does not enter the Sistine because they elect the Pope only the cardinals who are less than 80 years old. However, it is up to the dean establishes the Vatican agenda in this period. Neither king nor sandri enter conclave for age limits. To guide him will be the oldest of the cardinals of the order of bishops, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, current secretary of state.