Ryan also is happy to lend his Catholic moral theology credentials to his new boss, who sometimes struggles to strike a chord with religious voters.

CNN: Who will claim the Catholic vote?

Speaking on Irish state broadcaster Rates' News at One, Fr Twomey, the Professor Emeritus of Moral Theology at NUI Maynooth, said he was shocked at the Pope's resignation, but in hindsight he had given "some signals" in an interview last year.

BBC: Pope Benedict XVI