What is the status of St Malachy's prophecy within Catholicism? As might be well-known to some, and perhaps especially to Catholics, the name of Saint Malachy, a former Archbishop of Armagh, is often associated with the Prophecy of the Popes. Much of the recent interest in this prophecy appears not to come from within Catholicism itself. Is there a general consensus from within Catholicism on this seemingly important issue?
There is no consensus, because there is hardly any discussion about this in official Catholic circles. For eg. a google search on the vatican website for "prophecy of the popes" (in quotes) or "prophecy of malachi" (in quotes) or "prophecy of saint malachi" (in quotes) yields no relevant results. On the other hand you will find huge discussion on things like the prophecies of Fatima, the revelation to Sr Faustina and so on.

It seems the official Catholic Church doesn't give so much weight to this prophecy.  catholic.com, which is the largest Catholic apologetics site in the world says that "The consensus among modern scholars is that it is a 16th-century forgery created for partisan political reasons".