Pope Francis’s Trusted Advisors

On June 2, 2023, Francis appointed Cardinal Kevin Farrell president of the Vatican City State Court of Cassation. It is an important function which is added to the others held by the American high prelate.

In fact, since 2016, the latter has been Prefect of the Dicastery for the Family, Laity and Life, a curial body created by Pope Francis to which he attaches great importance. In this position, Farrell is zealously committed to remodeling the Curia with a view towards making more room for the laity, especially for women.

Since 2019, the High Prelate has also held the position of “Camerlengo,” a key role in the period of vacancy of the Apostolic See. It is up to the Camerlengo to officially confirm the death of the pope and to organize the conclave. During this period, he manages the temporal goods of the Holy See. With the dean of the Sacred College, he thus symbolically ensures the interim of the papacy.

On November 29, 2020, Cardinal Farrell was appointed President of the Commission for the Control of Confidential Contracts, a discreet financial oversight body composed of five members responsible for monitoring contracts outside normal procedures and which, for security reasons, are not made public.

Finally, the American high prelate is a member of the powerful Commission for the Vatican City State which, in the name of the pope, exercises power over the smallest state in the world. So many functions on the shoulders of a single man: this is not to the taste of all the members of the Sacred College.

In the hushed corridors of the apostolic palace, people were surprised by the appointment of the high prelate to the presidency of the Court of Cassation, an office which, since a recent decision by the Pope, no longer falls de jure to the prefect of the Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura – currently the French Cardinal Domenico Mamberti – but which falls under the will of the Prince’s good pleasure.

The strangest thing about the story is that Cardinal Farrell has no legal training. He simply holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and theology obtained after attending the Gregorian and the Angelicum – a little thin for claiming to exercise the supreme judicial function in the Vatican.

In the same vein, it should be noted that the three other cardinals appointed as judges at the Court of Cassation on June 2, are totally devoid of any training in canon law whatsoever: Cardinal Matteo Zuppi has a baccalaureate in theology; and as for Cardinal Augusto Paolo Lojudice, he holds a degree in theology with a specialty in fundamental theology.

Finally, Cardinal Mauro Gambetti has a degree in mechanical engineering, a bachelor’s degree in theology, and a degree in anthropology. (The skeptical reader will be able to discover the official notices of these high prelates on the Vatican website to verify the authenticity of this information.)

Cardinal Farrell was close to ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, reduced to a lay state and convicted of numerous abuses while he was Archbishop of Washington. The new president of the Vatican Court of Cassation is accused by more than one cleric of having “closed his eyes” to the actions of his colleague, of whom he was one of the closest collaborators as vicar general of the archdiocese.

“It is highly unlikely that Bishop Farrell knew nothing of the gravely criminal acts of McCarrick,” said Cardinal Raymond Burke in an August 2018 interview with La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana.

The June 2 appointments have the merit of showing who are Pope Francis’ trusted men; and their different profiles suggest that the Pontiff has every intention of keeping the upper hand over all the acts of the executive, legislative, and judicial bodies of the Vatican City State.