Closeup of Cardinal-designate Farrell

Friday, Oct. 14, 2016

DALLAS (CNS) — Cardinal-designate Kevin J. Farrell is having a busy year.

He had been the bishop of Dallas since 2007 but moved to Rome Oct. 6 to begin his new role as prefect for the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, only to find out three days later that he would be one of 17 new cardinals elevated in November.

Earlier this year, Cardinal-designate Farrell had been vocal about the need for better gun control. In July, he was among the religious leaders who delivered a prayer in Dallas the day after five Dallas-area police officers were gunned down as they were protecting people protesting fatal shootings by officers in other parts of the country.

“I am humbled by the news this morning that our Holy Father Pope Francis has named me to the College of Cardinals. I ask all in the Diocese of Dallas to please pray for me that I may to the best of my ability fulfill this sacred duty to our Church,” he said.

The 69-year-old cardinal-designate was born in Dublin and ordained to the priesthood in Rome as a member of the Legionaries of Christ in 1978.

He was later incardinated as a priest of the Archdiocese of Washington, where he served in several parishes before he was ordained an auxiliary bishop for the archdiocese in 2002. In 2007, he was named to head the Diocese of Dallas. 

During his nearly 10 years in Dallas, he also was outspoken on abortion and the death penalty, immigration and religious liberty. The diocese also had an increase in priestly vocations and steady Catholic school enrollment during his tenure.

Cardinal-designate Farrell was in the news in 2014 when Dallas city and county leaders asked him if the diocese could house a family that needed to be quarantined because of their exposure to an Ebola patient, who later died. For more than a month, four people who were members of a Baptist church were housed in a bungalow in the Catholic Formation and Conference Center in southern Dallas.