nunciature

noun

1. The status or rank of a nuncio (diplomatic representative of the Roman Catholic Church).

   “Does their role include the bringing of the message of Christ in the political life of the country to which they are ambassadors? A clarification of the role of nunciature is necessary to maintain this "appropriate communication."”

2. The building and staff of a nuncio; the equivalent of an embassy for the Holy See.

   “This was the prelate chosen by the new Pope, Innocent X., for the nunciature in Ireland: a man of noble birth, in the fifty-third year of his age, of uncertain bodily health, of great learning, especially as a canonist, of a fiery Italian temperament[…”

   “His ecclesiastical appointments showed how rapidly he had made his way, how supple was his mind: first of all secretary to the nunciature at Lisbon; […].”

   “During the first winter of the war, a junior officer in the nunciature to Italy was summoned to the foreign ministry by the chef de cabinet of Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano to review some matter of ecclesiastical property.”

   “Seeing as the meeting happened at the nunciature in Washington, it could only have happened with the approval and participation of the nuncio, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano.”

3. The term of service of a nuncio.

   “At the same time he had certainly searched documents, studied encyclical letters, based his sketch upon facts: first Leo's religious education at Rome, then his brief nunciature at Brussels, and afterwards his long episcopate at Perugia.”

   “The Warsaw nuncio was content to preach a spirit of peace, and was severely taken to task by the Polish press during the summer of 1920. This cast something of a shadow over the final period of his nunciature.”