Nuncio

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Nuncio is an ecclesistical diplomatic title, derived from the ancient Latin Nuntius, meaning any envoy. This article treats that title as well as derived similar titles, all in the Roman Catholic Church.

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Terminology and history

A Papal Nuncio (also known as an Apostolic Nuncio) is a permanent diplomatic representative (head of mission) of the Holy See to a state or international organisation (e.g. the Arab League), having ambassadorial rank, usually with the ecclesiastical rank of titular bishop or titular archbishop.

In addition, the Nuncio serves as the liason between the Holy See and the Church in that particular nation, supervising the diocesan episcopate (usually a national conference of bishops which has its own chairman, usually the highest ranking (arch)bishop, especially if his seat carries the title of primate and/or he has -individually- been created a cardinal) and has an important role in the selection of bishops.

Internuncios (also heads of missions) rank below Nuncios, being of the rank of an Envoy or Minister, with broadly the same task.

A legate a latere is a temporary papal representative or a representative for a special purpose.

Historically, the most important type of apocrisiary (a title also applying to representatives exchanged by a high prelate with a Patriarch) was the equivalent of a nuncio, sent by the Pope to the Byzantine Empire; during the fifth and sixth centuries, when which much of Italy remained under Byzantine control, several Popes were former apocrisiaries.

A Pro-Nuncio is a diplomatic representative who is not of full ambassadorial rank, his status representing the nature of the diplomatic relationship between the Holy See and the state to which he has been assigned. For nations with whom the Vatican has no official ties, an Apostolic Delegate (a lower rank) is sent to serve as a liaison to the Catholic Church in that nation. Until recent times, an Apostolic Delegate served as the papal representative to the United States and the United Kingdom, but both major Anglo-Saxon states with a predominantly protestant tradition established formal relations with the Holy See in the late twentieth century, allowing for the appointment of a Papal Nuncio (see the list of British Ambassadors to the Holy See); Pío Cardinal Laghi, for example, was Papal Nuncio in the United States during George H.W. Bush's presidency.

The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations provides (article 14(2)) "Except as concerns precedence and etiquette, there shall be no differentiation between heads of mission by reason of their class." Some traditionally Catholic states give special precedence to representatives of the Holy See — that is, they automatically accord the Nuncio the position of Dean of the diplomatic corps, a purely ceremonial position of precedence usually otherwise reserved for the longest-serving ambassador to a country — which they are permitted to do by the Convention (article 16(3)) "This article is without prejudice to any practice accepted by the receiving State regarding the precedence of the representative of the Holy See."

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