Kevin Farrell

His Eminence Kevin Joseph Farrell
Cardinal Prefect of the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life
Church	Roman Catholic Church
Appointed	August 17, 2016
Installed	September 1, 2016
Predecessor	None; position established
Other posts	Cardinal-Deacon of San Giuliano Martire (2016-)
Orders
Ordination	December 24, 1978 by Eduardo Francisco Pironio
Consecration	February 11, 2002 by Theodore Edgar McCarrick
Created cardinal	November 19, 2016 by Pope Francis
Rank	Cardinal-Deacon
Personal details
Birth name	Kevin Joseph Farrell
Born	(1947-09-02) September 2, 1947 Dublin, Ireland
Previous post	Auxiliary Bishop of Washington (2001–07) Titular Bishop of Rusuccuru (2001–2007) Bishop of Dallas (2007–16)
Motto	State In Fide ("Stand in Faith")
Coat of arms

Styles of Kevin Joseph Farrell
Reference style	His Eminence
Spoken style	Your Eminence
Informal style	Cardinal

Kevin Joseph Farrell (born September 2, 1947) is an Irish-American prelate and a Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church.

Born in Dublin, Ireland and a former member of the Legion of Christ, he was appointed the Prefect of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life, effective September 1, 2016. He was created a Cardinal on November 19, 2016. He was the seventh Bishop of Dallas, as well as the chancellor of the University of Dallas. Revelations in July 2018 that Farrell's mentor, Cardinal Ted McCarrick, was guilty of abusing many young seminarians and priests over several decades brought calls in countless American publications for Farrell to clarify whether he knew of the allegations and did nothing. McCarrick ordained Farrell to the episcopacy in 2001 and Farrell served as auxiliary Bishop to McCarrick in Washington DC through 2006 before Farrell was transferred to Dallas.^{[1][2][3] [4]}

Early life

Kevin Joseph Farrell was born in Dublin and grew up speaking Gaelic.^[5]

The second of four sons, he has an older brother, Brian, who currently serves as Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity in the Roman Curia. Farrell studied under the Christian Brothers in Drimnagh, and entered the novitiate of the Legion of Christ in 1966. In 1967, he visited the United States while raising funds for the missions of Latin America through the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith.

He obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Salamanca in Spain, followed by studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, where he earned a Master's degree in Philosophy and licentiate in theology. He also attended the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum), receiving a master's degree in dogmatic theology (1976) and Licentiate of Sacred Theology in pastoral theology (1977).^[6] He also holds a Master's in business and administration from the University of Notre Dame.

Priesthood

Farrell was ordained to the priesthood in Rome on December 24, 1978. He then served as chaplain to the University of Monterrey in Mexico, where he also conducted seminars in bioethics and social ethics. He was also General Administrator of the Legion of Christ with responsibilities for seminaries and schools in Italy, Spain, and Ireland.

In 1984, Farrell was assigned to the United States and incardinated in the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. He served as an associate pastor at St. Peter's Church, Olney, Maryland, St. Bartholomew Church, Bethesda, Maryland, and St. Thomas the Apostle Church, Washington, D.C. He succeeded Fr. Seán O'Malley, OFM Cap, as director of the Spanish Catholic Center in 1986.

Farrell became acting director of Catholic Charities in 1988, and was the Archdiocesan Secretary of Finance from 1989 to 2001. He was raised to the rank of Honorary Prelate of His Holiness in 1995. In 2001, he was named vicar general for the Archdiocese and pastor of Annunciation Church in Washington.

Bishop

On December 28, 2001, Pope John Paul II appointed Farrell as an Auxiliary Bishop of the Washington Archdiocese with the titular see of Rusuccuru. He was consecrated on February 11, 2002, by Theodore Edgar Cardinal McCarrick, and served until 2007 as Washington's moderator of the curia and chief vicar-general.

He was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI on March 6, 2007 to replace the retiring Bishop of Dallas, Texas, Charles Victor Grahmann. He was installed on May 1, 2007.^[7]

Within the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Farrell was a consultant to the Committee on Migration, which oversaw the Migration and Refugee Services department. This department serves and advocates for refugees, asylees, other forced migrants, immigrants and people on the move.^[8]

Farrell was the 2009 chair of the USCCB Committee on National Collections, which supports stewardship and coordinates the collections for social justice, evangelization, education and institutional development. His brother, Bishop Brian Farrell, is the secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. Kevin Farrell commented: "I'm younger, but I became bishop first, 12 months earlier. And we still have a little sibling rivalry."^[9]

On August 17, 2016, Pope Francis appointed Bishop Kevin Farrell prefect of the newly established Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life.^[10]

On October 9, 2016, Pope Francis announced he would raise Farrell to the rank of cardinal in a consistory on November 19, 2016.^[11] He was created a Cardinal-Deacon on that day and assigned to the church of San Giuliano Martire.^[12] He became the highest ranking American clergyman serving in the Vatican since William Cardinal Levada.

In November 2016, Farrell stated that the United States' Roman Catholic bishops as a whole should have discussed pastoral guidelines for implementing Pope Francis's exhortation on the family before individual bishops began issuing guidelines for their own dioceses. Implementing the Pope's post synodal apostolic exhortation, Amoris Laetitia, he said, "has to be done in communion with our bishops. I think that it would have been wiser to wait for the gathering of the conference of bishops where all the bishops of the United States or all the bishops of a country would sit down and discuss these things." Farrell was asked specifically about pastoral guidelines issued for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia by Archbishop Charles Chaput. Among other things, the Philadelphia guidelines state that while divorced and civilly remarried couples should be welcome in parishes and accompanied by priests, they may not receive Communion unless they live as brother and sister.^[13]

On June 10, 2017, Pope Francis named him a member of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See,^[14] and on December 23, 2017, a member of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State.^[15]

Honor by University of Dallas - Administration Building Named Farrell Hall

Despite a reputation among the very conservative student body at the University of Dallas for being a supporter of efforts to change the University into a more moderate institution, the University Board of Trustees in 2016 announced they would honor Bishop Farrell by naming their newest building after him.^[16][17] The decision drew renewed criticism in 2018 in light of the very negative publicity surrounding Cardinal Farrell's mentor and friend, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick.^[3]

In Summer of 2018, after continued bad publicity regarding the relationship between Farrell and Cardinal McCarrick, a website was formed arguing against honoring Farrell by UD and a petition was circulated through that website among students and alumni demanding that Farrell's name be removed from the new administration building.^[18]

Connection to Archbishop McCarrick

In July 2018, after publicity over a 50-year-old accusation that former Washington DC Archbishop Theodore McCarrick had been accused of molesting a teenage boy, news came out that there were also many accusations and legal settlements in the three Dioceses where McCarrick had served as ordinary that McCarrick had harassed and molested adult men in his seminary formation programs as well as young priests. Questions were presented in many news articles as to which of the Bishops who served under and with McCarrick were aware and did nothing. Farrell is the highest ranking of these bishops, having been chosen in 2001 by McCarrick as an auxiliary Bishop and then having served with McCarrick through the next six years in the leadership of the Archdiocese of Washington. In those years Farrell also served in the high ranking position of Vicar General. He also shared an apartment with McCarrick in those years. Farrell has published a video response about this but the clip makes it unclear whether Farrell is saying he knew nothing about the abuse of the teenage boy or whether he knew nothing about the homosexual harassment of adults.^[1][3][2]

In September 2018, the Italian daily newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano claimed to have obtained a dossier on Cardinal Farrell, part of the 300 page report on financial corruption, homosexuality, and blackmail, centered around a gay mafia within the Vatican. Il Fatto Quotidiano asserts that the dossier is from the investigation conducted by Cardinals Julián Herranz, Salvatore De Giorgi, and Jozef Tomko in response to the 2012 Vatican leaks scandal. As of September 14, 2018, the newspaper has yet to release the dossier.^[19]

Views

References

External links

• "Farrell Card. Kevin Joseph". Holy See Press Office. October 24, 2017. Archived from the original on November 20, 2016.
• O'Connell, Gerard (August 17, 2016). "Pope appoints Bishop Farrell of Dallas, Texas, to Head new Vatican Department for Laity, Family and Life". La Stampa. Retrieved October 24, 2017.
• Diocese of Dallas official website