John L. Allen Jr. with Pope Benedict XVI
John Allen, Vatican correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter and then editor of the Catholic news site, Crux Now, would disarm his listeners with self-deprecating humor. He grew up in Hays, a small town almost in the center of Kansas, not far from the open fields where my uncles raised corn and hunted pheasants. Despite his world-wide prominence as a journalist and as the author of six books on issues related to the Catholic Church, he never lost his open, middle-of-America charm. At one presentation in Chicago, I heard him introduce himself to the audience: “I am CNN’s senior Vatican analyst. But, of course, I am also CNN’s only Vatican analyst.”
In 2011, as the Focolare Movement was marking its fiftieth anniversary of arriving in the United States, he wrote in NCR “Memo to a divided church: Meet the Focolare.” In his interview with Maria Voce, the Focolare’s president at that time, he shared what he found in her and in other members of the Focolare: “A large part of the reason the focolarini are able to build bridges has little to do with overt programs or structures of dialogue. It’s instead because of their personal qualities, rooted in the group’s spirituality—they tend to be open, ego-free, and just relentlessly nice.” He acknowledged that some have had difficult experiences with the Movement, concluding, “No doubt Focolare will never be everybody’s cup of tea. Yet it’s hard to escape the impression that whatever its defects, Focolare remains a valuable resource for the über-challenge facing Catholicism today: Figuring out how the church can harness its resources to face the new questions of the twenty-first century, rather than being forever consumed by its internal battles.” What he perceived over a decade ago remains valid today.
After a three-year battle with stomach cancer, he died in Rome this week, on Thursday. Elise Allen summed up her husband’s life in this way: “Where pain and suffering are present, so is hope, and it is present everywhere: in the love and generosity of those around us, and in the many little signs and blessings God sends to assure us that we are not alone.” For me, as a writer and editor for Focolare Media, John Allen exemplified the work I also try to do—to ground what I write in well-researched fact and opinion and to express the truth with humility, clarity, good humor, and hope.
Many will miss him. I will too.
