The 77-year-old, born in Dublin, had only been in Rome for a few years, summoned out of the blue from his job as bishop of Dallas, when he was asked by Pope Francis in 2016 to reorganise the Vatican’s laity office.
This was followed three years later, in 2019, by a request from Francis that he take on another role, steeped in myth and mystery but with real-world responsibilities, managing the Vatican as “camerlengo”, or chamberlain, during the often traumatic “interregnum” between papacies and helping to organise the conclave to elect the next pontiff.
Pope Francis, left, with Cardinal Kevin Farrell during a vigil at Campo San Juan Pablo II in Panama City in 2019 (Alessandra Tarantino/AP)
Cardinal Farrell recalled in a 2022 interview that he told the Pope he would accept the position, but on one condition, that Francis would preach at his own funeral, reflecting the cardinal’s hope that he would die before Francis and never have to act as a camerlengo.
The joke was twofold: Cardinal Farrell did not particularly want the heavy responsibility. But more personally, he did not want to entertain the possibility of outliving Francis, whom he credited with having set the Catholic Church on a crucial path of renewal, redirecting it away from culture-war defensiveness and back to its Gospel-driven essence of inclusion.
“We were defending ourselves always: Self-preservation was the theme of the church,” Cardinal Farrell said.
“And Pope Francis...
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