Vatican Correspondent Speaks at NDC

The Abrahamic Center of Notre Dame College is proud to present a distinguished lecture by John Allen, Jr., senior correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter and CNN senior Vatican analyst, at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 4. The lecture will be held in the auditorium of the College's Regina Hall, located at 1857 South Green Road, South Euclid.

Allen, a prize-winning journalist and author of six best-selling books on the Vatican and Catholic affairs, will speak about “Vatican Interfaith Relations with Islam and Judaism.” The lecture is sponsored by Medical Mutual of Ohio and open to the public on a first-come, first-served basis. A VIP dessert reception with Mr. Allen will follow the program for those who purchase tickets ($50 each) in advance.

To reserve lecture seats and/or purchase tickets for the VIP dessert reception with John Allen, Jr., contact Dr. Michael Bloom, director of the Abrahamic Center, at mbloom@ndc.edu or 216.373.6383.

Allen's work is admired across ideological divides. Liberal commentator Fr. Andrew Greeley calls his writing “indispensable,” while the late Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, a conservative, 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.

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.”

The London Tablet has called Allen “the most authoritative writer on Vatican affairs in the English language,” and renowned papal biographer George Weigel has called him “the best Anglophone Vatican reporter ever.” 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.”

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Notre Dame’s Abrahamic Center is devoted to developing programs for the College and the Greater Cleveland community that foster mutual respect among all peoples, and celebrate religious, racial and cultural diversity.