John L Allen Jr, Author at Catholic Herald

John L Allen Jr

Could Archbishop Gänswein be made papal nuncio to Baltic states?

April 14, 2024

ROME – Rumors set in motion this week by a journalist close to Pope Francis, Elisabetta Piqué of Argentina’s La Nacion, suggest the pontiff may be on the verge of naming his erstwhile bête noire, German Archbishop Georg Gänswein, as his apostolic nuncio, meaning ambassador, to an unspecified foreign country. Yesterday, veteran Vatican writer Gian

Feeling the strain: Israel, Gaza and the ‘special relationship’ of Jewish-Catholic dialogue

March 02, 2024

ROME – In geopolitics, the concept of a “special relationship” between the United States and the United Kingdom has been a cornerstone of strategic thinking since Winston Churchill coined the phrase in 1946. While it can mean vastly different things depending on who’s employing it, the basic idea is that the two partners will stand

Fiducia Supplicans: Taking stock

February 06, 2024

We’ve been here before, says John L Allen Jr, as the arguments continue. After years of ferment in Catholicism over a highly sensitive matter of sexual morality, marked in almost equal measure by both expectation and dread of a possible change in official teaching, the Vatican issues a landmark document seeking to resolve the issue.

Vatican trial raises the question: Is Pope Francis ‘Great Reformer’ or ‘Great Restorer’?

December 18, 2023

ROME – Anyone who’s ever read or seen Inherit the Wind knows that almost 100 years ago, a celebrated trial took place in the American state of Tennessee, dubbed at the time the “Trial of the Century”, in which a teacher was accused of teaching evolution in a public school in violation of state law, thereby creating

From Texas to the tribunal, the perplexities of papal power

November 30, 2023

John L Allen Jr explains the absolute power of the Pope, but also that two current controversial situations are very different in nature. Although not generally known for the limpidity of its prose, the Code of Canon Law does deliver at least one sentence of crystalline clarity in canon 331, regarding the Roman Pontiff: “By

Just how valuable is sitting around tables?

October 28, 2023

Is the Synod on Synodality any more than an empty talking shop, asks John L Allen Jr. If one were seeking a title with which Pope Francis’s October 4-29 Synod of Bishops on Synodality will pass into history – assuming it leaves a significant enough legacy to be remembered, which is not yet a foregone

A split running through the Church

September 25, 2023

John L Allen Jr considers how the Synod of Bishops will be able to deal with hugely divisive issues. On October 4, the curtain will rise on the first of two keenly anticipated Synods of Bishops on the theme of synodality – really, they’re synods “with” bishops, but more on that shortly – which, depending

By stacking the odds in his favour, does Pope Francis risk splitting the vote at the next conclave?

September 01, 2023

Almost 300 years ago, a minor French playwright by the cumbersome name of Léonor-Jean-Christine Soulas d’Allainval – he mockingly referred to himself as the “Abbé d’Allainval”, which one historian described as a “proto-punk poke in the eye of the Catholic Church” – debuted a work titled L’Embarras des richesses, which, fairly obviously, translates into English

Is Pope Francis stacking the deck for the next conclave?

August 01, 2023

Are we reading too much into Pope Francis’s upcoming consistory, which could influence the choice of his successor, asks John H Allen Jr. ROME – When Pope Francis creates 21 new cardinals on 30 September, including 18 under the age of 80 and thus eligible to vote for his successor, the focus obviously will be

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