{{Short description|American Roman Catholic journalist (1965–2026)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=October 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = John L. Allen Jr. | image = JLAllenJr.JPG | caption = Allen in 2005 | birth_date = {{birth date|1965|01|20}} | birth_place = [[Hays, Kansas]], U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|2026|01|22|1965|01|20}} | death_place = [[Rome]], Italy | alma_mater = {{unbulleted list | [[Fort Hays State University]] | [[University of Kansas]]}} | occupation = Religion [[journalist]] and author | years_active = 1997–2026 | employer = ''[[Crux (online newspaper)|Crux]]'' | spouse = Elise<ref name = Nossiter/> }}
'''John Lewis Allen Jr.''' (January 20, 1965 – January 22, 2026) was an American journalist and author who served as editor of the [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] news website ''[[Crux (online newspaper)|Crux]]'', formerly hosted by ''[[The Boston Globe]]'' and now independently funded.
Before moving to ''The Boston Globe'' when Crux was established in 2014, Allen worked for 17 years in [[Rome]] as a [[Vatican watcher]], covering the [[Holy See]] and the [[Pope]] for the ''[[National Catholic Reporter]].'' He also served as a Senior Vatican Analyst for [[CNN]], and featured in broadcast coverage of the [[Papal conclave|conclaves]] of [[2005 conclave|2005]] and [[2013 conclave|2013]]. Allen was the St. Francis de Sales Fellow of Communication and Media at the [[Word on Fire|Word on Fire Institute]] founded by [[Bishop]] [[Robert Barron]]. Allen was the author of numerous books about the Catholic Church. He wrote two biographies of [[Pope Benedict XVI]].
== Early life and education == John Lewis Allen Jr. was born on January 20, 1965, in [[Hays, Kansas]].<ref name = Nossiter>{{Cite news|title=John L. Allen Jr., Journalist With Inside Access to the Vatican, Dies at 61|last=Nossiter|first=Adam|date=January 29, 2026|access-date=January 29, 2026|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/29/business/media/john-l-allen-jr-dead.html}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.hayspost.com/2014/01/16/hays-native-named-religion-editor-for-boston-globe/ |title=Hays native named religion editor for Boston Globe |last1=Kiser |first1=Becky |date=January 16, 2014 |website=hayspost.com |publisher=The Hays Post |access-date=September 24, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181201135905/https://www.hayspost.com/2014/01/16/hays-native-named-religion-editor-for-boston-globe/ |archive-date=December 1, 2018 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Allen|first=John L. Jr.|year=2007|orig-year=2005|title=[[Opus Dei (book)|Opus Dei: An Objective Look Behind the Myths and Reality of the Most Controversial Force in the Catholic Church]]|location=New York|publisher=Image Books|page=[https://archive.org/details/opusdei00john/page/ iv]|isbn=978-0-385-51450-7}} Birth year in catalog heading in Library of Congress cataloging-in-publication data.</ref> He graduated from [[Order of Friars Minor Capuchin|Capuchin]]-founded<ref>{{cite web |url=http://tmp-m.org/history/ |title=History |website=tmp-m.org |publisher=[[Thomas More Prep-Marian]] |access-date=September 24, 2016 |archive-date=December 1, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181201125350/https://tmp-m.org/history/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> [[Thomas More Prep-Marian]] High School in 1983.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.nationalcatholicreporter.org/word/word090806.htm#six |title=Capuchins elect brother to Rome post |date=September 8, 2006 |access-date=August 8, 2009 |work=[[National Catholic Reporter]] |quote=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.}}</ref> 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]]. From 1993 until 1997, Allen taught journalism and oversaw the student-run newspaper, ''The Knight,'' at [[Notre Dame High School (Sherman Oaks, California)|Notre Dame High School]] in [[Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles|Sherman Oaks, California]].<ref name = Nossiter/>
== Career == 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 delivered 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 (online newspaper)|Crux]]''.<ref>{{cite news |last=Coday |first=Dennis |title=John Allen to cover Catholicism, the Vatican for Boston Globe |url=http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/john-allen-cover-catholicism-vatican-boston-globe |access-date=January 10, 2014 |newspaper=National Catholic Reporter |date=January 7, 2014}}</ref> 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'', lived in Rome.
In an interview quoted in the Vatican's 2020 [[Theodore McCarrick#Vatican report|McCarrick Report]], Allen stated he did not report rumours because, "If I tried to interview every one of these guys [bishops] every time I heard something salacious, that is all I'd be doing and I'd be out of business in a heartbeat."<ref>{{cite report |author=Secretariat of State of the Holy See |date=November 10, 2020 |title=Report on the Holy See's Institutional Knowledge and Decision-making Related to Former Cardinal Theodore Edgar McCarrick (1930 to 2017) |url=https://www.vatican.va/resources/resources_rapporto-card-mccarrick_20201110_en.pdf|location=Vatican City State|page=224 |access-date=January 30, 2026}}</ref>
Allen received a number of honorary doctorates from universities: * 2011: Doctor of Sacred Letters, [[University of St. Michael's College|St. Michael's College]]<ref>{{cite web | url=https://stmikes.utoronto.ca/about-us/governance-and-administration/honorary-doctorates-and-other-university-of-st-michaels-college-honours/honorary-degree-recipients-of-the-university-of-st-michaels-college | title=Honorary Degree Recipients of the University of St. Michael's College }}</ref> * 2015: Doctor of Humanities, [[Lewis University]] (Romeoville, IL)<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.lewisu.edu/welcome/honorarydegrees.htm | title=Lewis University | About Us | Honorary Degrees Bestowed by Lewis University }}</ref> * 2015: [[Doctor of Humane Letters]], [[Saint Michael's College]] (Colchester, VT)<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.smcvt.edu/about-smc/news/2015/may/civil-rights-champion-is-2015-commencement-speaker/ | title=Civil rights champion is 2015 Commencement speaker | date=May 8, 2015 }}</ref> * 2016: Doctor of Humane Letters, [[University of Dallas]]<ref>{{cite web | url=https://issuu.com/udallas/docs/2016_-_annual_commencement | title=2016 Commencement Program by University of Dallas - Issuu | date=May 15, 2016 }}</ref>
== Personal life and death == Allen firstly married Shannon Levitt.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://cruxnow.com/commentary/2017/01/peculiar-catholic-education-led-jew-love-rome|title=A peculiar Catholic education led this Jew to love Rome|last=Levitt|first=Shannon|date=January 2, 2017|access-date=January 30, 2026|work=Crux}}</ref>
Allen married fellow journalist Elise Ann Harris in Key West, Florida, in about 2020.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://cruxnow.com/church/2026/01/john-l-allen-jr-a-life-remembered-in-gratitude|title=John L. Allen Jr.: A life remembered in gratitude|last=Allen|first=Elise Ann|date=January 22, 2026|access-date=January 30, 2026|work=Crux}}</ref>
Allen suffered with stomach cancer for three years prior to his death in Rome, on January 22, 2026, at the age of 61.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Allen|first1=John L. Jr.|title=A John Allen update, and three notes of thanks|url=https://cruxnow.com/commentary/2025/04/a-john-allen-update-and-three-notes-of-thanks|website=Crux|access-date=January 23, 2026|date=April 12, 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Esteves |first1=Junno Arocho |title=Crux editor, veteran Vatican journalist John Allen loses battle with cancer |url=https://www.osvnews.com/crux-editor-veteran-vatican-journalist-john-allen-loses-battle-with-cancer/ |access-date=22 January 2026 |work=OSV News |date=22 January 2026}}</ref>
== Publications == [[File:JLAwithbenedict.jpg|thumb|Allen with [[Pope Benedict XVI]]]] In addition to a column and occasional other pieces for [[National Catholic Reporter|''NCR'']], Allen's work as a journalist appeared in ''The [[New York Times]]'', ''The Washington Post'', ''The Wall Street Journal'', [[CNN]], [[NPR]], ''[[The Tablet]]'', [[Jesus (magazine)|''Jesus'']], ''[[Second Opinion]]'', [[The Nation (U.S. periodical)|''The Nation'']], the [[The Miami Herald|''Miami Herald'']], ''[[Die Furche]]'', and the ''[[Irish Examiner]]''.{{Citation needed|date=January 2026}}
Allen wrote, 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.<ref>{{cite web |title=John L. ALLEN, Jr., Pope Benedict XVI: A Biography of Joseph Ratzinger. |url=http://catholicbooksreview.org/2005/allen.htm |publisher=Catholic Books Review |author=Bourgeois, Jason Paul |access-date=September 21, 2017}}</ref> Several reviewers criticized it as being biased against Ratzinger. [[Joseph Komonchak]] called it "[[Manichaeism#Figurative use|Manichaean]] journalism".<ref>Joseph Komonchak, book review, in ''[[Commonweal (magazine)|Commonweal]]'', 2000.</ref> After some examination, Allen concluded that this criticism was valid.<ref>{{cite news |first=John |last=Allen |title=Catholic Common Ground Lecture |date=June 25, 2004 |url=http://www.nationalcatholicreporter.org/update/allen_common.htm |work=[[National Catholic Reporter]] |access-date=March 12, 2009}}</ref> 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".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Christianity/Catholic/2005/08/What-To-Expect-From-Benedict-XVI.aspx |title=What to Expect from Benedict XVI |publisher=[[Beliefnet]] |date=April 2005 |access-date=March 13, 2009}}</ref>
In 2005 he published a book about [[Opus Dei]], ''[[Opus Dei (book)|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".<ref>{{cite news |last=Romanowsky |first=John |title=Unveiling Opus Dei: An Interview with John L. Allen |url=http://oldarchive.godspy.com/reviews/Opus-Dei-An-Interview-with-John-Allen-by-John-Romanowsky.cfm.html |access-date=January 10, 2014 |newspaper=GodSpy |date=December 22, 2005}}</ref>
[[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."<ref>{{cite news |last=Woodward |first=Kenneth L. |title=An All-Seeing Outsider |url=http://www.newsweek.com/all-seeing-outsider-125659 |access-date=January 10, 2014 |newspaper=Newsweek |date=January 18, 2004}}</ref>
Allen was critical of how the Vatican communicated the decision to lift the excommunications of the bishops of the [[Society of Saint Pius X]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://ncronline.org/blogs/all-things-catholic/lefebvrite-case-what-was-vatican-thinking |title=The Lefebvrite case: What was the Vatican thinking? |work=[[National Catholic Reporter]] |date=January 30, 2009 |access-date=February 19, 2009}}</ref>
=== 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 [[Timothy M. Dolan|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 [[Robert E. Barron|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.
=== Online articles/columns === * [http://www.cruxnow.com/authors/johnallen Crux articles]{{Dead link|date=September 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} – Archive of John Allen's articles on "Crux: Covering all things Catholic * [https://web.archive.org/web/20161025155413/http://www.bostonglobe.com/staff/allenj Boston Globe articles] – Archive of John Allen's column in the Boston Globe * [http://ncronline.org/blogs/all-things-catholic/ All Things Catholic] – Archive of John Allen's column in the National Catholic Reporter
== References == {{reflist}}
== External links == {{wikiquote}} {{commons category}} * [http://johnlallenjr.wordpress.com John L. Allen Jr.'s blog] * {{IMDb name| 2286317}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Allen, John L. Jr.}} [[Category:1965 births]] [[Category:2026 deaths]] [[Category:21st-century American journalists]] [[Category:21st-century American male writers]] [[Category:21st-century American non-fiction writers]] [[Category:21st-century Roman Catholics]] [[Category:21st-century American male journalists]] [[Category:American male non-fiction writers]] [[Category:American Roman Catholic writers]] [[Category:American television reporters and correspondents]] [[Category:The Boston Globe people]] [[Category:CNN people]] [[Category:Deaths from stomach cancer in Lazio]] [[Category:Fort Hays State University alumni]] [[Category:The New York Times columnists]] [[Category:People from Hays, Kansas]] [[Category:University of Kansas alumni]] [[Category:Warner Bros. Discovery people]]