Who is Cardinal Kevin Farrell, the acting head of the Vatican?
Cardinal Kevin Farrell, who announced Pope Francis’ death on Monday morning, is now the acting head of the Vatican until a new pope is elected.
There’s a name for the person with that job: the camerlengo.
According to Britannica, the cardinal camerlengo in Roman Catholicism is a key dignitary of the Vatican who is personally appointed by the pope and tasked with “a specific series of functions in the crucial time of transition from one pope to his successor.”
Those tasks include verifying the pope’s death, destroying the late pope’s symbolic fisherman ring and preparing the conclave, the process by which a new pope is elected.
