Allocution

Allocution, which simply means an 'address,' is applied, in the language of the Vatican, to denote specially the address delivered by the pope at the College of Cardinals on any ecclesiastical or political circumstance. It may be considered as corresponding in some measure to the official explanations which constitutional ministers give when questions are asked in parliament. The Papal court generally makes use of this method of address, when it desires to guard a principle which it is compelled to give up in a particular case, or to reserve a claim for the future which has no chance of recognition in the present. Allocutions are published by being affixed to the doors of St Peter's.