ALLOCUTION. - A more or less solemn address
delivered at an assembly; in particular, the term is more commonly used to indicate those solemn declarations which the Pontiff is accustomed to make in the presence of the Sacred College in secret consistories (in our times, “secret” only in ritual) or in other great assemblies of the Church or of the papal Court. It deliberately deals with subjects of special current importance, concerning the relations of the Holy See with civil governments, the gravest questions pending or resolved, the most urgent needs of the universal Church, the triumphs and persecutions of religion.
Many allocutions have had and still retain particular historical and diplomatic importance; such, to confine ourselves to the last 150 years, are those of Pio VII on the concordat with Napoleone I and on its violations by France, especially in 1802 and 1808; of Gregorio XVI on disputes with Prussia and Russia; of Pio IX and Leone XIII on the “Roman Question”; of Pio X on the separation between Church and State in France; of Pio XI on the imminent dangers of the last world war.
Other allocutions frequently take place for the appointment and imposition of the hat upon cardinals, and for beatifications and canonizations. Vittorio Bartoccetti