is the announcement in a consistory of a pending or recent appointment to an episcopal see. It has no constitutive significance. For quite some time, the pope has eschewed preconization, announcing only the number and (some of) the names of the bishops he has appointed since the preceding consistory. The term does not appear in CIC/1983 or the Acta Apostolicae Sedis.
Bibliography
R. Naz, DDC VII, 1965, 162
H. Laemmer, Institutionen des katholischen Kirchenrechts, 21892, 227
W. Aymans & K. Mörsdorf, KanR 2, 1997, 337.