[2] While in papal service in Rome he acquired a number of absentee appointments in the Prince-Bishopric of Liège, with a canonry in Tongeren from 1606 and a benefice in Borgloon from 1616.
[1] Pauli-Stravius returned to the Low Countries in 1624, resigning his canonry in Tongeren to take up a position as archdeacon of Arras Cathedral, becoming vicar general to Bishop Paul Boudot.
[3][4] In 1634, he was appointed Apostolic Internuncio to Flanders, the pope's interim diplomatic agent at the Brussels court in expectation of the arrival of Lelio Falconieri as nuncio.
Falconieri in the event never presented his credentials, and in 1637 his appointment was rescinded, so Pauli-Stravius continued to act as the papal diplomat on the spot until after Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand of Austria's death in November 1641, when the Brussels nunciature was wound down.
In 1641, both Richard and his brother Georges were nominated as auxiliary bishops to Ferdinand of Bavaria, who while ruling as prince-bishop of Liège and archbishop-elector of Cologne had not himself received episcopal ordination.