John L. Allen Jr. (born January 20, 1965) is an American journalist and author who serves as editor of the Catholic news website Crux, formerly hosted by The Boston Globe and now independently funded.
During the coverage of the death of Pope John Paul II, Allen frequently appeared on CNN. He then became the Senior Vatican Analyst for CNN. He also delivers lectures discussing Vatican issues and his latest works.
In 2014, Allen took up a position as associate editor with The Boston Globe and helped to launch its website, Crux.[5] In 2016, the Globe transferred ownership of the Crux website and its intellectual property to Allen. It now operates on the basis of advertising income, syndication and licensing as well as support from benefactors. Allen and his wife, Elise, who also serves as a Senior Correspondent for Crux, live in Rome.
Allen has received a number of honorary doctorates from universities:
Allen has written, among other books, two biographies of Pope Benedict XVI. The first was written before then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger became pope, the other after his election to the papacy. In 2000, Allen published Cardinal Ratzinger: The Vatican's Enforcer of the Faith, the first biography of Ratzinger in English.[10] Several reviewers criticized it as being biased against Ratzinger. Joseph Komonchak called it "Manichaean journalism."[11] After some examination, Allen concluded that this criticism was valid.[12] In his next biography of Ratzinger, The Rise of Benedict XVI: The Inside Story of How the Pope Was Elected and Where He Will Take the Catholic Church (2005), Allen tried to be fair to all sides and viewpoints. Allen acknowledged that his first book was "unbalanced" because it was his first book and was written, he wrote, "before I arrived in Rome and before I really knew a lot about the universal church." In that acknowledgement he said the first biography "gives prominent voice to criticisms of Ratzinger; it does not give equally prominent voice to how he himself would see some of these issues."[13]
In 2005 he published a book about Opus Dei, Opus Dei: An Objective Look Behind the Myths and Reality of the Most Controversial Force in the Catholic Church. Allen said that one of his reasons for writing his study of Opus Dei was that he felt that liberal and conservative Catholics were too often shouting at each other, and he hoped that a book that tried to be fair to all sides would lead to civilized discussion. According to John Romanowsky of Godspy, Allen's ability to report objectively, without revealing his personal opinion, has been called "maddening".[14]
Kenneth L. Woodward, former religion editor for Newsweek, wrote in 2005: "Outside of the North Korean government in Pyongyang, no bureaucracy is harder for a journalist to crack than the Vatican's. And no one does it better than John L. Allen Jr. ... In just three years, Allen has become the journalist other reporters—and not a few cardinals—look to for the inside story on how all the pope's men direct the world's largest church."[15]
Allen was critical of how the Vatican communicated the decision to lift the excommunications of the bishops of the Society of Saint Pius X.[16]
Books
Cardinal Ratzinger: The Vatican's Enforcer of the Faith. New York, NY: Continuum, 2000.
Reprinted in 2005 as Pope Benedict XVI: A Biography of Joseph Ratzinger.
Conclave: The Politics, Personalities, and Process of the Next Papal Election. New York, NY: Image Books, 2002.
All the Pope's Men: The Inside Story of How the Vatican Really Thinks. New York, NY: Image Books, 2004.
The Rise of Benedict XVI: The Inside Story of How the Pope Was Elected and Where He Will Take the Catholic Church. New York, NY: Image Books, 2006.
Opus Dei: An Objective Look Behind the Myths and Reality of the Most Controversial Force in the Catholic Church. New York, NY: Image Books, 2007.
The Future Church: How Ten Trends are Revolutionizing the Catholic Church. New York, NY: Image Books, 2009.
The Catholic Church: What Everyone Needs to Know. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.
The Global War on Christians: Dispatches from the Front Lines of Anti-Christian Persecution. New York, NY: Image Books, 2013.
The Francis Miracle: Inside the Transformation of the Pope and the Church. New York, NY: TIME Books, 2015.
Shahbaz Bhatti: Martyr of the Suffering Church. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2017.
Catholics and Contempt: How Catholic Media Fuel Today's Fights, and What to Do About It. Park Ridge, IL: Word on Fire Institute, 2023.
Book-length Conversations
(with Cardinal Timothy Dolan) A People of Hope: The Challenges Facing the Catholic Church and the Faith that Can Save It. New York, NY: Image Books, 2011.
(with Bishop Robert Barron) To Light a Fire on the Earth: Proclaiming the Gospel in a Secular Age. New York, NY: Image Books, 2017.
Booklets
10 Things Pope Benedict XVI Wants You to Know. Liguori, MO: Liguori Publications, 2007.
Global Good News: Unseen Work of the Catholic Church. Liguori, MO: Liguori Publications, 2010.
10 Things Pope Francis Wants You to Know. Liguori, MO: Liguori Publications, 2013.
Against the Tide: The Radical Leadership of Pope Francis. Liguori, MO: Liguori Publications, 2014.
^"Capuchins elect brother to Rome post". National Catholic Reporter. September 8, 2006. Retrieved August 8, 2009. It is no secret to regular readers of this column that I have a special affection for the Capuchins, who had the Christian charity to put up with me in grade school and high school in Hays, Kansas in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
