ALLOCUTION. - A more or less solemn discourse delivered at an assembly; in particular it is more commonly used to denote those solemn declarations that the Pontiff is accustomed to make in the presence of the Sacred College in secret consistories (in our times, "secret" only as regards the rite) or at other grand assemblies of the Church or of the pontifical Court. In it, topics of special current relevance are deliberately treated, 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 a particular historical and diplomatic importance; such, to limit ourselves to the last 150 years, were those of Pius VII on the concordat with Napoleon I and on its violations by France, especially in 1802 and 1808; of Gregory XVI on the divergences with Prussia and Russia; of Pius IX and Leo XIII on the "Roman Question"; of Pius X on the separation between Church and State in France; of Pius XI on the imminent dangers of the last world war.
Other allocutions take place frequently for the appointment and imposition of the hat on cardinals, for beatifications and canonizations.
Vittorio Bartoccetti