Catholics’ temporary leaders: Kevin from Dublin
On Sunday morning, the message came that Pope Francis had passed away, 88 years old. He had spent large parts of 2025 in hospitals with respiratory infection and double -sided pneumonia. He later died of brain haemorrhage and heart failure.
Now it is up to the conclave, consisting of the cardinals for 80 years, to choose a new pope.
Until then Is 77-year-old Cardinal Kevin Farrell, from Ireland’s capital Dublin, the one with the most power in the Catholic Church. It was also he who on Sunday, from the building Casa Santa Marta at Petersplatsen, announced that Pope Francis had passed away.
As the Vatican’s « Camerlengo » (in Swedish: Chamberlain), Kevin Farrell now has responsibility for the administrative and financial issues of Catholic enclave. He controls the Apostolic Palace from the Pope’s page until a new pope is selected, according to The Telegraph.
The period without pope is called « Sede Vacante » and is expected to take up to three weeks.
It is also Kevin Farrell which is ultimately responsible for maintaining the confidentiality when the conclave enters the Sixtin chapel, where the votes take place. Above all, he makes sure that nothing can be filmed.
All voting cardinals must also submit everything that is written down on paper, so that it can be burned up with the ballot papers.
When the Cardinals agree, Farrell writes the report about who it is that has been elected. The report must then be approved by three cardinal assistants before being handed over to the person who has been appointed to the new pope.
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