John L. Allen Jr.

John L. Allen Jr. (born 1965) is an American journalist serving as editor of the Roman Catholic–oriented news website Crux, formerly hosted by The Boston Globe and currently produced in partnership with the Catholic fraternal organization the Knights of Columbus. Before moving to The Boston Globe when Crux was established in 2014, Allen worked for 16 years in Rome as a Vatican watcher, covering news about the Holy See and the Pope. During that time he was senior correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter and an analyst of Vatican affairs for CNN and NPR.

John L. Allen Jr.
Born1965 (age 54–55)
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater
OccupationReligion journalist and author
EmployerCrux
Notable work
  • The Rise of Benedict XVI (2005)
  • Opus Dei (2005)
Home townHays, Kansas

Allen is also the author of several books about the Catholic Church. He has written two biographies of Pope Benedict XVI, the first one published in 2000 when the Pope was still a cardinal and later the first biography of him in English.

Biography

Born in 1965,[1] Allen grew up in Hays, Kansas.[2] He graduated from Capuchin-founded[3] Thomas More Prep-Marian High School in 1983.[4] He received a bachelor's degree in philosophy from Fort Hays State University and a master's degree in religious studies from the University of Kansas. For several years, Allen taught journalism and oversaw the student-run newspaper, The Knight, at Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, California.

During the coverage of the death of Pope John Paul II, Allen frequently appeared on CNN. He then became the Vatican analyst for CNN and NPR. He also delivers lectures discussing Vatican issues and his latest works.

On November 5, 2011, St. Michael's College at the University of Toronto awarded him an honorary Doctor of Sacred Letters degree. He has also received honorary doctorates from "Lewis University in Romeoville, Illinois; Saint Michael's College in Colchester, Vermont; and the University of Dallas, Irving, Texas."[5]

In 2014, Allen took up a position as associate editor with The Boston Globe and helped to launch its website, Crux.[6] In 2016, the Globe transferred ownership of the Crux website and its intellectual property to the Crux editors. With Allen as its editor in team with Inés San Martín and Shannon Levitt, the new Crux became an independent entity, backed financially by the Knights of Columbus.[7]

Allen and his wife Shannon live in Denver, Colorado.

Publications

Allen writes regularly for Crux, and wrote a weekly column for The Boston Globe called "All Things Catholic". That was also the name of his column at the National Catholic Reporter. Before the middle of 2006, it was known as "The Word from Rome".

In addition to this column and occasional other pieces for NCR, Allen's work as a journalist has appeared in the New York Times, CNN, NPR, The Tablet, Jesus, Second Opinion, The Nation, the Miami Herald, Die Furche, and the Irish Examiner.

Allen with Pope Benedict XVI

Allen has written several books. He is the author of 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.[8] Several reviewers criticized it as being biased against Ratzinger. Joseph Komonchak called it "Manichaean journalism."[9] After some examination, Allen concluded that this criticism was valid.[10] 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."[11]

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".[12]

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."[13] According to the London Tablet, Allen is "the most authoritative Vatican writer in the English language."

Allen was critical of how the Vatican communicated the decision to lift the excommunications of the bishops of the Society of Saint Pius X.[14]

Bibliography
This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Books
  • Cardinal Ratzinger: The Vatican's Enforcer of the Faith. NY: Continuum, 2000. ISBN 978-0-8264-1265-2.
  • Conclave: The Politics, Personalities, and Process of the Next Papal Election. New York: Doubleday/Image, 2002, revised 2004. ISBN 978-0-385-50453-9.
  • All the Pope's Men: The Inside Story of How the Vatican Really Thinks. (Hardcover) New York: Doubleday, 2004. ISBN 978-0-385-50966-4. (Trade Paperback) New York: Doubleday/Image October 2006. ISBN 978-0-385-50967-1.
  • Pope Benedict XVI: A Biography of Joseph Ratzinger. NY: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2005. ISBN 978-0-8264-1786-2. This is a reprint of Allen's 2000 book Cardinal Ratzinger, reprinted under a new title without Allen's permission.
  • The Rise of Benedict XVI: The Inside Story of How the Pope Was Elected and Where He Will Take the Catholic Church. (Hardcover) NY: Doubleday, 2005. ISBN 978-0-385-51320-3. (Trade Paperback) New York: Doubleday/Image October 2006. ISBN 978-0-385-51321-0.
  • Allen, John L., Jr. (2005). Opus Dei: An Objective Look Behind the Myths and Reality of the Most Controversial Force in the Catholic Church. New York: Doubleday.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  • The Future Church: How Ten Trends are Revolutionizing the Catholic Church. NY: Doubleday, 2009. ISBN 978-0-385-52038-6.
  • A People of Hope: Archbishop Timothy Dolan in Conversation with John L. Allen Jr. 2011
  • The Catholic Church: What Everyone Needs to Know, 2013
  • The Global War on Christians: Dispatches from the Front Lines of Anti-Christian Persecution. Crown Publishing Group, 2013, ISBN 978-0-7704-3736-7
  • The Francis miracle; inside the transformation of the Pope and the Church, New York, Time Books, 2015, 276p.

Online articles/columns

Critical studies, reviews and biography

References
  1. Allen, John L., Jr. (2007) [2005]. Opus Dei: An Objective Look Behind the Myths and Reality of the Most Controversial Force in the Catholic Church. New York: Image Books. p. iv. ISBN 978-0-385-51450-7.
  2. Kiser, Becky (January 16, 2014). "Hays native named religion editor for Boston Globe". hayspost.com. The Hays Post. Archived from the original on December 1, 2018. Retrieved September 24, 2016.
  3. "History". tmp-m.org. Thomas More Prep-Marian. Retrieved September 24, 2016.
  4. "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.
  5. "John L. Allen Jr". cruxnow.com. Crux. Retrieved September 24, 2016.
  6. Coday, Dennis (January 7, 2014). "John Allen to cover Catholicism, the Vatican for Boston Globe". National Catholic Reporter. Retrieved January 10, 2014.
  7. Owen, Laura Hazard (March 24, 2016). "Crux's "corporate resurrection": How the Catholic news site will live on beyond The Boston Globe". neimanlab.org. Neiman Lab. Retrieved September 24, 2016.
  8. Bourgeois, Jason Paul. "John L. ALLEN, Jr., Pope Benedict XVI: A Biography of Joseph Ratzinger". Catholic Books Review. Retrieved September 21, 2017.
  9. Joseph Komonchak, book review, in Commonweal, 2000.
  10. Allen, John (June 25, 2004). "Catholic Common Ground Lecture". National Catholic Reporter. Retrieved March 12, 2009.
  11. "What to Expect from Benedict XVI". Beliefnet. April 2005. Retrieved March 13, 2009.
  12. Romanowsky, John (December 22, 2005). "Unveiling Opus Dei: An Interview with John L. Allen". GodSpy. Retrieved January 10, 2014.
  13. Woodward, Kenneth L. (January 18, 2004). "An All-Seeing Outsider". Newsweek. Retrieved January 10, 2014.
  14. "The Lefebvrite case: What was the Vatican thinking?". National Catholic Reporter. January 30, 2009. Retrieved February 19, 2009.
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