John Allen, the journalist who explained the Vatican with expertise and wit

By Andrea Tornielli

He died after fighting cancer for four years, never giving up and continuing to work for as long as his strength allowed. John Allen Jr., 61, was the founder and editor of Crux, a website specializing in coverage of the Holy See and the Church around the world for English-language readers, particularly in the United States. I met John when he arrived in Rome 26 years ago as a correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter, focusing on news about the Pope and the Holy See and following the Apostolic Journeys of John Paul II. What I remember first and foremost about him is his smile and his open, warm way of engaging with people.

In 2000, Pope John Paul II, already affected by illness, was living through the Great Jubilee, a significant milestone of his pontificate, and undertaking journeys destined to enter history. For years, rumors and speculation about the future papabili of the next Conclave had been circulating (some of whom, moreover, were called to the Father’s House before the Polish Pontiff). The new millennium began with great hopes and openness, under the illusion of the “end of history” after the fall of communism. That outlook was abruptly shattered by the shock of the September 11, 2001 attacks and the subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

John was able to recount and interpret both the internal affairs of the Vatican and the Church (for example, the emergence of the scandal of abuse of minors) and the role of the Holy See and its diplomacy in international events, particularly those involving the United States. In every article, John combined rigor and careful attention to sources with interpretive frameworks, analysis, and context, and he insisted on using quotations “on the record,” always accompanied by full names. Another defining feature of his work was that he never took anything for granted and therefore never wrote only for insiders: he knew how to speak to his audience—not composed solely of Catholics, nor only of believers. Even when one disagreed with the conclusions of his analyses, they were always worth reading, because John explained the complex reality of the Holy See without trivializing it.

In 2014, John left the National Catholic Reporter to found Crux, initially an offshoot of the Boston Globe and later an independent publication. At a time of massified and oversimplified information, he had understood that professional, specialized journalism was a value, because readers—bombarded by often imprecise news—wanted and needed to understand. John Allen chronicled the dynamics of conclaves and had devoted a biography to Joseph Ratzinger (Cardinal Ratzinger: The Vatican’s Enforcer of the Faith) five years before he became Pope Benedict XVI. He followed his pontificate and the election of Pope Francis. He also had the joy of seeing elected as Successor of Peter the first American in the history of the Catholic Church, whom he knew and spent time with as well, thanks also to Elise, a Vatican correspondent whom he married six years ago and the author of a biography of Leo XIV, and who cared for him during this difficult period of illness.

Of John—an admirer of Roman cuisine and a great supporter of AS Roma—I would like to recall four more qualities: his ability to build relationships and contacts with people at every level of the Church; his determination never to stop at first impressions but to seek to understand the reasons of others; his sense of humor; and his extraordinary skill as a speaker, capable of holding any audience spellbound by alternating sophisticated analysis with anecdotes and wit.