Papal emissary

As a detective solving the mystery of the crossword clue “Papal emissary”, my mind immediately jumps to the realm of Vatican and its inner workings. I consider the fact that the pope is the head of the Catholic Church and has diplomatic relations with numerous countries. I recall that whenever the pope sends someone as his representative, they are referred to as “nuncios”. The thought process connects the dots – ‘Papal’ clearly refers to the pope and ’emissary’ suggests a representative. The word ‘nuncio’ is likely to house in the solution grid. Upon cross-checking with the remaining letters, the word ‘NUNCIO’ fits the clue perfectly, with its synonym being ‘ambassador’, signifying a representative of the pope on diplomatic missions to foreign governments. From there, it was just a matter of placing the letters and solving the rest of the puzzle.