Important church described by Catholic Herald collapsed after a time (9)
I believe the answer is:
cathedral
'important church' is the definition.
'catholic herald collapsed after a time' is the wordplay.
'catholic' becomes 'c' (abbreviation as in RC for Roman Catholic).
'collapsed' indicates anagramming the letters.
'after' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'time' becomes 't'.
'herald' anagrammed gives 'hedral'.
'a'+'t'='at'
'hedral' after 'at' is 'athedral'.
'c'+'athedral'='CATHEDRAL'
'described by' is the link.
(Other definitions for cathedral that I've seen before include "Where you'll find bishop" , "religious site" , "Had claret (anag.)" , "place of religion" , "Head church of diocese" .)