Following the death of Pope Francis, a cardinal from the United States has become acting head of the Vatican until a new pontiff is elected.

He is Cardinal Kevin Farrell, a Dublin-born cleric who became a naturalized American citizen after spending many years ministering in the United States. Farrell, a former Bishop of Dallas, holds the position of “camerlengo” (or chamberlain) which tasks him with “overseeing and administering the temporal goods and rights of the Apostolic See” following the death or resignation of a pope.

It is the camerlengo’s job to “officially ascertain the Pope’s death,” place seals on the pope’s bedroom and study and make funeral preparations. The camerlengo is also tasked with making practical arrangements for the conclave, to ensure the confidentiality of proceedings and orderly voting.

Wearing white choir dress and a red stole (a vestment), he presides over the ceremonial service of the certification of death, “a first moment of prayer” following the death of the pope, and the placing of the body into a wooden and zinc coffin, according to a liturgical book for papal funeral rites which Francis had updated last year. He draws up “the authentic act of death” which is then attached to the death certificate that has been drawn up by the Vatican’s Director of the Department of Health and Hygiene. On Monday evening, the Vatican press office said Francis died of a stroke and heart failure.

The camerlengo’s powers are limited to the day-to-day administration of the Vatican and he chairs a committee of three other cardinals as he carries out his duties. When serious matters arise, he must consult with the wider body of cardinals.

Nevertheless, during the papal interregnum – the period between the death of one pope and the election of another – the camerlengo can request financial information from Vatican departments including details of any “extraordinary business” taking place. He can also demand “the budget and consolidated financial statement of the Holy See for the previous year, as well as the budget for the following year,” according to the constitution of the church’s central administration. During a papal interregnum, all leaders of the Vatican offices cease to carry out their work aside from the camerlengo and two others.

Farrell is a well-qualified camerlengo. The 77-year-old is unusual for a high-ranking church leader in holding a Master of Business Administration degree (MBA), from the University of Notre Dame, Indiana. Farrell is the highest-ranking US bishop in the church’s central administration and known as a strong decision maker and organizer who has the advantage of being a fluent English and Spanish speaker, the two most widely spoken languages in the global church. He is also known to speak Italian and Irish Gaelic.

Farrell’s expertise caught the attention of Pope Francis who made him one of his most trusted collaborators. In 2016, Francis appointed the then Bishop of Dallas to be the leader of the Vatican’s family life, later making him a cardinal and then, three years later, choosing him for the important and sensitive position of camerlengo.

But they weren’t the only responsibilities Francis gave the cardinal. In 2023, the pope appointed Farrell as President of the Vatican City state supreme court while naming him president of both the Vatican’s “Commission for Confidential Matters” and “Committee for Investments,” the latter designed to guarantee to the ethical nature of the Holy See’s financial investments. Farrell was also chosen to sit on the boards overseeing the Holy See’s property portfolio and the administration of Vatican City State.

Born in 1947, he left Ireland as a teenager and joined the Legionaries of Christ, a religious order founded in Mexico in 1941 which would later be plagued by the revelations of abuse by its founder, Marcial Maciel. Farrell, however, left the group decades before Maciel was revealed to have sexually abused dozens of minors.

The future cardinal studied in Spain and Rome and then worked in Mexico and the US. In 1984 he became a priest of the Archdiocese of Washington DC and went on to hold senior positions in the capitol’s local church. He would later face questions about what he knew regarding the case of former cardinal and Archbishop of Washington, Theodore McCarrick, found guilty by a church trial of abusing minors and of sexual misconduct against adult trainee priests. Farrell denied any knowledge of McCarrick’s behavior. “Did I ever know? No. Did I ever suspect? No. Did he ever abuse any seminarian in Washington? No,” he said.

While leading the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life, the cardinal appointed two women to senior positions in his department and has said that his successor could be a non-cleric. “My expertise is getting people to do the job, people who are qualified to do the job,” he has said. Service at high-level in the church seems to be in the family blood with one of Farrell’s brothers, Brian, also a priest and a bishop and has spent many years working in the Vatican.

He backed the pope’s merciful approach to divorced and remarried Catholics, with Francis opening the door to them receiving communion. “Fundamentally, this is about meeting people where they are,” Farrell explained. The cardinal described opposition to the late pope as “vicious” and “unprecedented” but insisted Francis had bought the church closer to the fundamentals of Christianity.

As the church prepares for a new pontiff, Farrell will seek to ensure the transition is as smooth and seamless as possible.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday he is open to the possibility of bilateral talks with Ukraine for the first time in years, as pressure from the United States builds on both sides to agree to a quick peace deal.

US, European and Ukrainian officials are set to meet this week in London after Washington warned that it could abandon its efforts on ending the conflict if there were no signs of progress.

Speaking to reporters, Putin said it could be possible to discuss the halting of strikes against civilian infrastructure directly with Kyiv.

“We have a positive attitude towards a ceasefire,” Putin also said, referencing Russia’s decision to implement a surprise 30-hour Easter truce – which both sides accused each other of violating.

“That is why we have always said that we take a positive attitude to any peace initiatives,” Putin said. “We hope that the representatives of the Kyiv regime will feel the same way.”

Ukraine, which called for the extension of the truce before it expired Sunday, has repeatedly accused Russia of deliberately targeting civilians with air and drone strikes, and President Volodymyr Zelensky has called for Moscow to halt such attacks.

Putin acknowledged that recent Russian strikes had hit civilian facilities in Ukraine, but claimed that they were being used for military purposes.

“That’s what we need to look into,” he said. “It’s all a subject to be thoroughly investigated. Maybe bilaterally, as a result of dialogue. We don’t rule that out.”

“So we will analyze all of this and make appropriate decisions for the future,” he said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed Putin’s remarks to journalists, Reuters reported citing Russia’s Interfax news agency.

“When the president said that it was possible to discuss the issue of not striking civilian targets, including bilaterally, the president had in mind negotiations and discussions with the Ukrainian side,” the news agency quoted Peskov as saying.

Ukraine and Russia have not held direct talks since the early weeks of Moscow’s invasion in 2022.

Last Friday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that the US could walk away from its efforts to end the Ukrainian conflict within “days” if there were no signs of progress. Trump later confirmed the sentiment, but did not provide a timeline.

Asked what progress he would need to see to continue negotiations, Trump said he would “have to see an enthusiasm to want to end it” from both sides, predicting he would know “soon.”

The remarks came after a broad framework was presented by the US to both sides, Rubio and the State Department have said, to determine whether differences between Kyiv and Moscow can be narrowed.

There are still pieces of the framework to be filled out and the US plans to work with the Europeans and the Ukrainians during talks this week in London, the person said. The Trump administration is simultaneously planning another meeting between Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Russia to get Moscow on board with the framework, the source said.

Moscow has previously stalled on negotiations and rejected an earlier US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire agreed to by Kyiv.

Zelensky has not publicly commented on the latest US proposal. On Tuesday, he said Ukraine will send a delegation to the follow up talks in London.

“Ukraine, the United Kingdom, France, and the United States — we are ready to move forward as constructively as possible… to achieve an unconditional ceasefire, followed by the establishment of a real and lasting peace,” he wrote in a statement on X.

“An unconditional ceasefire must be the first step toward peace,” he said.

Zelensky has expressed willingness to agree to a peace deal with Moscow but said last month that his government would not recognize any occupied territories as Russian, calling that a “red line.”

Trump has declined to say whether he is prepared to walk away completely from the talks or whether the US would support Ukraine militarily if talks fall through.

Kosta Gak and Kylie Atwood contributed reporting

An old saying about papal elections goes as follows: “He who enters the conclave as pope, leaves it as a cardinal.” In other words, any candidate seen as the frontrunner before the voting begins should be treated with caution, and no cardinal should go into the Sistine Chapel assuming they will get the votes.

At the 2013 conclave, one of the favorites was Cardinal Angelo Scola of Milan. The Italian bishops were so confident that he would be chosen that after the white smoke emerged from the Vatican chimney, a senior Italian church official sent a message to reporters expressing joy over Scola’s election. The problem was that Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio had already been named pope.

This conclave is going to be crucial for deciding the future direction of the Roman Catholic Church, and the field of candidates is wide open thanks to Pope Francis’ reforms.

During his pontificate, Francis overhauled the composition of the body that will elect his successor, making it more representative of the worldwide church.

He threw out the old, unwritten rulebook that bishops of certain dioceses (several of them in Italy) would automatically be made cardinals and instead gave red hats to bishops in parts of the world that had never had them before, such as Tonga, Haiti and Papua New Guinea. Several of them are “outsiders” to the Roman system, so it makes it harder to predict how they will vote.

Nevertheless, only a few cardinals have the requisite skills, experience and personality suitable to taking on the role of leading the Roman Catholic Church.

Electors will need to consider the priorities of the church and the profile of the next candidate. They will also need to consider whether the next pope should continue the reforms started by Francis or take a different direction.

They will be looking for someone able to lead a global church and offer credible moral leadership on the world stage. Some see the church’s future as lying in Asia, which has led to speculation the next pope could be from Southeast Asia.

Age is also a factor, with the last two conclaves opting for older popes to ensure shorter pontificates.

Papal candidates are known as “papabile” or translated from the Italian, “pope-able.” The vast majority of the papabile were appointed by Pope Francis, although two were chosen by Benedict XVI. Here are some of the contenders.

As the world rushed to pay tribute to Pope Francis following his death, the response has been comparatively muted in China – an officially atheist state with millions of Catholics whose government has had a difficult and complex relationship with the Vatican.

In the passing of Pope Francis, Beijing loses a well-respected global leader who had pushed the Vatican closer to China’s Communist Party leadership than any of his predecessors.

Nonetheless, Chinese state-controlled media’s coverage on his death has been terse, and more than 20 hours after the Vatican’s announcement of his passing neither Beijing nor China’s own state-sanctioned Catholic Church had issued an official statement.

While condolences from the government are ultimately expected – likely via a foreign ministry spokesperson per precedent – China’s minimalist response underscores the sensitivity of ties between the atheist ruling Communist Party and the Holy See.

The Vatican has not maintained formal diplomatic relations with China since 1951, when the newly established communist regime broke ties and expelled the papal nuncio, the Holy See’s envoy.

Instead, the Vatican remains one of a dwindling number of countries – and the only one in Europe – that recognizes the sovereignty of Taiwan, a self-governing island democracy Beijing claims its own.

Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te offered “sincerest condolences on behalf of the people of Taiwan” over the Pope’s death soon after the Vatican’s announcement, while the island’s foreign ministry said Taipei would send an envoy to the pontiff’s funeral.

That diplomatic allegiance to Taiwan has remained a sore point for Beijing as it feuded with the Vatican for decades over who gets to appoint Catholic bishops in China. Pope Francis had attempted to address the issue with a landmark – although controversial – deal with the Chinese government as he pushed for better ties.

In China, the ruling Communist Party keeps a tight grip on religion, fearing challenges to its authority, and allows worship only at state-controlled churches.

For decades, China’s state-sanctioned Catholic churches had been run by bishops appointed by Beijing, until the two sides reached an agreement under Pope Francis in 2018. Details of the controversial accord have never been made public and many within China’s underground congregations who have remained loyal to Rome and long faced persecution fear being abandoned.

The deal, which is part of Pope Francis’s vision to expand the Catholic Church’s following across the world, aimed to help the Vatican gain access to potentially millions of converts across China. It was renewed in 2020 and 2022, and in October last year, both sides agreed to extend it for another four years.

But critics have questioned why the church, historically a defender of human rights and Christian values, would willingly join forces with the Chinese government, which under leader Xi Jinping has further curtailed religious freedom. Much of that criticism of the deal has come from within the Catholic Church itself.

The Vatican insists the deal is already paying off and hopes to open a permanent office in China. That has left Catholics in Taiwan wondering what will happen to them should the Vatican ever switch recognition.

Catholicism is one of five state-recognized faiths in China, where religious practice is strictly controlled by the Communist Party, which asserts its supremacy over all aspects of life.

By official count, there are about 6 million Catholics in China, but the number may be higher when counting those who practice at underground churches to avoid Beijing’s watchful eye.

Francis had repeatedly expressed his wish to make a trip to China – a country no pope has ever visited. Chinese Catholics will remember him as the first pope to have ever been authorized to fly over Chinese airspace.

On his way to South Korea in 2014, Pope Frances sent a radio message to Xi when flying over China: “Upon entering Chinese airspace, I extend my best wishes to your excellency and your fellow citizens, and I invoke divine blessings of peace and wellbeing upon the nation.”

In 2023, during his visit to neighboring Mongolia, Francis made a rare move to send a “warm greeting to the noble Chinese people.”

“To the entire people I wish the best, go forward, always progress. And to the Chinese Catholics, I ask you to be good Christians and good citizens,” he said at the end of his Sunday Mass in the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar.