"I was saddened this morning to learn of the passing of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.

"Leading the Catholic Church for almost a decade, the son of a police officer and a cook, the first German elected as Pope in one thousand years, he was ultimately a ‘humble worker in vineyard of the Lord’.

"Today my thoughts are with Archbishop Eamon Martin and with all those in Ireland who will find the news of his passing as both saddening but also difficult."