Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life

Leadership

About Kevin Joseph Farrell

Kevin Joseph Farrell was born on 2 September 1947 in Dublin, Ireland, the second of four sons; his older brother Brian Farrell later served as secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. He entered the novitiate of the Legionaries of Christ in Ireland in 1966 and studied at the Pontifical Gregorian University and the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) in Rome, earning degrees in philosophy, dogmatic theology, and pastoral theology. He was ordained to the priesthood on 24 December 1978. After ordination he served as a chaplain and bioethics lecturer at the University of Monterrey, Mexico. In the early 1980s he left the Legionaries and was incardinated in the Archdiocese of Washington, DC, where he served at multiple parishes, directed the Spanish Catholic Center, became director of Catholic Charities (1988), and served as vicar general and monsignor from 2001. Pope John Paul II appointed him Auxiliary Bishop of Washington in December 2001, and Pope Benedict XVI appointed him Bishop of Dallas on 6 March 2007, a see he served until 2016. Pope Francis appointed him the first Prefect of the newly established Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life on 17 August 2016, and created him a Cardinal-Deacon on 19 November 2016. He was named Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church in February 2019 and President of the Supreme Court of Vatican City in January 2024. Following the death of Pope Francis on 21 April 2025, Farrell served as the acting sovereign of Vatican City until the election of Pope Leo XIV on 8 May 2025.

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Competent for the enhancement of the apostolate of the lay faithful, pastoral care of youth and the elderly, promotion of the family according to God's plan, and protection of life.

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