Irish cardinal who silenced McAleese at Vatican event is promoted by Pope

THE Dublin-born cardinal who barred Mary McAleese from the Vatican has become one of the most important men in the Catholic Church.

Pope Francis has appointed Cardinal Kevin Farrell to the role of ‘camerlengo’, which involves keeping the Church running between the death of one Pope and election of a new one.

Cardinal Farrell, who grew up in Dublin, oversaw the World Meeting of Families in the Republic of Ireland last August and is prefect of the Vatican Department for Laity, Family and Life.

The office of camerlengo has been vacant since the death of French Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran last July.

Last year Cardinal Farrell (71) landed himself in controversy when he refused to allow the former Irish President Dr McAleese, who is from Belfast, and two other women, to speak at a confer- ence in the Vatican on International Women’s Day.

The event was moved and Dr McAleese blasted the Catholic Church in her address, describing it as a “primary global carrier of the toxic virus of misogyny” and “a male bastion of patronising platitudes”.

Cardinal Farrell’s new duties as camerlengo will involve overseeing preparations for a papal conclave to elect a new Pope, as well as administering the Holy See during the period between the death of one pope and the election of the successor.

When Pope Francis was elected in 2013, it was the Camerlengo Cardinal Tauran who

Dr Mary McAleese and Dublin-born Cardinal Kevin Farrell

announced from the Vatican balcony the words: “Habemus Papam: We have a Pope.”

Farrell left Ireland when he was

16 and joined the controversial Legion of Christ, which has been marred by scandals relating to its now deceased Mexican founder.

Ordained a priest in 1978, Cardinal Farrell later left the Legion for the US Archdiocese of Washington.

In 2002 he became an auxiliary bishop of Washington, serving as vicar general and adviser to the then-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick.

McCarrick has recently been stripped of his office following allegations of abuse of minors and seminarians. Cardinal Farrell has denied knowing anything about McCarrick’s behaviour and said the allegations relate to McCarrick’s time in New Jersey.

In 2007 Farrell was appointed Bishop of Dallas. Pope Francis made him a cardinal in 2016.