Herald the finality of Christ's spirit descending on the first pope (9)
I believe the answer is:
trumpeter
'herald' is the definition.
(I know that herald can be written as trumpeter)
'finality of christ's spirit descending on the first pope' is the wordplay.
'finality of christ' becomes 't' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'spirit' becomes 'rum' (alcoholic spirit).
'descending on' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other) (in a down clue, some letters go on top of others).
'the first pope' becomes 'peter' (I've seen this in another clue).
't'+'rum'+'peter'='TRUMPETER'
'the' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for trumpeter that I've seen before include "Elephant perhaps" , "[SOMETHING FISHY]" , "one of a band" , "Musician" , "One touting own skills perhaps" .)