Vatican correspondent to speak at Justice for All dinner

John Allen, prize-winning senior correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter and the Senior Vatican Analyst for CNN, will speak at this year’s annual Justice for All Dinner on Thursday, April 25.
Sponsored by Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Camden, the dinner will be held at the Adelphia Ballroom in Deptford.
Allen is the author of seven best-selling books on the Vatican and Catholic affairs, and writes frequently on the church for major national and international publications. He’s also a popular speaker on Catholic affairs, both in the United States and abroad.
Kevin Hickey, executive director of Catholic Charites, said, “Catholic Charities is thrilled to have John Allen as our speaker this year.”
“John Allen is an engaging and thoughtful speaker, and he is committed to helping Catholic Social Ministries,” Hikey said. “As we celebrate our new bishop and the 10th anniversary of our Justice for All Dinner, John Allen will provide the Camden Diocese with great insights into Vatican, the global church, and the challenges we face in the 21st Century.”
The London Tablet has called Allen “the most authoritative writer on Vatican affairs in the English language,” and papal biographer George Weigel has called him “the best Anglophone Vatican reporter ever.”
When Allen was called upon to put the first question to Pope Benedict XVI aboard the papal plane en route to the United States in April 2008, the Vatican spokesperson said to the pope: “Holy Father, this man needs no introduction.”
That’s not just a Vatican judgment. Veteran religion writer Kenneth Woodward of Newsweek described Allen as “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.”
Allen’s work is admired across ideological divides. Father Andrew Greeley calls his writing “indispensable,” while the late Father Richard John Neuhaus called Allen’s reporting “possibly the best source of information on the Vatican published in the United States.” His weekly internet column, “All Things Catholic,” is widely read as a source of insight on the global church.
Allen’s most recent book is “People of Hope,” an extended interview with Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York. His first book, published in 2000, was “Cardinal Ratzinger: The Vatican’s Enforcer of the Faith.”
When Cardinal Ratzinger became Pope Benedict XVI, Allen wrote “The Rise of Benedict XVI: The Inside Story of How the Pope was Elected and What it Means for the Catholic Church.”
Allen divides his time between Rome and his home in Denver, Colo. He grew up in Western Kan., and holds a Master’s degree in religious studies from the University of Kansas.