Irish leader Enda Kenny and President Michael D Higgins led tributes to Pope Benedict XVI after he announced his retirement on Monday.

The Catholic Church has been rocked by the shock announcement that Pope Benedict XVI will resign at the end of February.

Notre Dame University professor of Theology, Jesuit Father Brian Edward Daly, has been announced as one of two winners of the 2012 Ratzinger Prize in Theology.

Benedict could be the second to last Pope.

Pope Benedict XVI is facing tough opposition and widespread apathy ahead of his visit to Britain on Thursday, a new opinion poll shows.

The prophecies of the Irish saint Malachy, the 12th century bishop of Armagh  who predicted all the popes have thrilled and dismayed readers for centuries. He has stated there will be only one more pope after the current one, and during his reign comes the end of the world.

Susan Boyle will sing for Pope Benedict at a massive outdoor mass in Glasgow later this year in September.  

In a preview of Pope Benedict' s letter to the Irish people, expected on Ash Wednesday, which falls on February 17, the Pope will "acknowledge the tremendous contribution of the Irish to the church worldwide from the time of the golden age of monasticism to the modern missionary movement.

• Video / Watch the Pope assaulted by woman on Christmas Eve / Click here

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