John L. Allen Jr. (born January 20, 1965) is an American journalist and author who serves as editor of the Catholic news website 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.

Allen is the St. Francis de Sales Fellow of Communication and Media at the Word on Fire Institute founded by Bishop Robert Barron.

From 1993 until 1997, Allen taught journalism and oversaw the student-run newspaper, The Knight, at Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, California.

[13] 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 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.

[15] 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.