APOSTOLIC NUNCIO. - According to the modern concept, he is a titular archbishop who is sent by the Pontiff as his representative, with a permanent appointment and diplomatic character, to the head of a State. The functions of the nuncio are of two kinds: those of representing the Supreme Pontiff to the civil government, and those of representing the same Roman Pontiff to the Catholic communities existing in the State to which he is accredited: the first representation is absolutely essential to the qualification of nuncio, and it is by this that he is distinguished from the apostolic delegate; the second is common to both (can. 267). As representatives of the pope to civil governments, nuncios enjoy the rights recognized for the representatives of a foreign State; they handle relations between the Holy See and the governments to which they are accredited; they watch over the observance of mutual agreements both on the part of the civil authorities and on the part of the local ecclesiastical authorities, and in any case over the respect owed to the prerogatives of the Church and to the rights of the Catholic communities, acting as interpreters of their just aspirations and their well-founded complaints; they direct negotiations between the Holy See and the State, reporting to the former on the course and the conclusion of the talks; they inform the same Holy See of the attitude of the political authorities, of public opinion, of the parties and of the press toward the rights of the Church, and they bring to the attention of governments the desires, the requests or even the remonstrances of the Holy See, according to the norms and instructions of the latter.
According to the regulation adopted at the Congress of Vienna in 1815, nuncios are equated with ambassadors (v. AGENTE DIPLOMATICO); generally the nuncio is also the dean of the diplomatic corps.
As representatives of the Supreme Pastor to the Catholic communities, nuncios perform a function identical to that of apostolic delegates (v.), with equal powers and functions; they must watch over, in order to report on it to the Holy See (can. 267 § 1, n. 3), the state of the Churches, that is, the observance of ecclesiastical discipline on the part of the clergy and the faithful, the progress or decline of Catholic life in the country, the conditions that favor or hinder its development, the means to be adopted to facilitate its growth or remove its difficulties. Nuncios, however, like apostolic delegates, must not and cannot take the place of the Ordinaries by exercising acts of jurisdiction within the ambit of the latter's dioceses (can. 269 § 1), unless they are furnished with special faculties granted to them for that purpose.
Bibliography
Dino Staffa