Felipe Monroy / VC Noticias.- Pope Leo XIV has once again surprised with an unexpected papal appointment in the Dicastery for Communications of the Holy See, naming María Montserrat Alvarado, until now the chief operating officer of the U.S. Catholic multimedia network EWTN (Eternal Word Television Network).
The appointment strengthens the presence and leadership role of women in the Holy See, a path begun by Pope Francis, as Alvarado will serve as Prefect of the Dicastery starting November 1, 2026, overseeing the Vatican’s and the pontiff’s communication resources. It also reaffirms the popes’ trust in journalism and in the laity to help make the Catholic Church’s message present in the world.
María Montserrat Alvarado, originally from Mexico City, received her education and specialization in the United States and works at the leading U.S. Catholic network in the region.
Like Pope Prevost, Alvarado’s binational status—born in one country but adopted and developed in another—also sends a meaningful message from the pontiff to a reality increasingly present in the contemporary world.
Alvarado will replace the current prefect of the dicastery, Paolo Ruffini, also a layperson, who directed TV2000, the television channel of the Italian Episcopal Conference. Alvarado has worked at EWTN News since 2023 and oversees EWTN’s global media platforms, which produce content in English, Spanish, German, French, Portuguese, Arabic, and Italian.
U.S. media have described Alvarado as a “proud Latina Catholic” with a master’s degree from George Washington University and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Florida International University. She began her career at the Becket Fund, a well-known nonprofit that defends religious freedom as a human right before the U.S. Supreme Court.
«That María Montserrat is the new head of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication is a direct message to the world power and its people, while also having an impact on Latin America, since Alvarado combines her Mexican nationality—the country with the largest number of migrants in North America—with her academic and professional trajectory in a nation experiencing great political tension due to ultranationalism and despotic populism,» says the specialist from the A-PU Agency.
Other analysts highlight the decision to maintain the course set by his predecessor Francis in entrusting these leadership and operational tasks of the Vatican to women; however, Leo XIV’s decision also signals sympathy and alignment with an entire multimedia group at the heart of the powerful U.S. nation.
In fact, despite past tensions between the EWTN network during Pope Francis’s pontificate, the Holy See entrusted the U.S. network with collaborating with the Dicastery for Communication on the presentation of the encyclical Magnifica Humanitas.
EWTN, founded in 1981 in the garage of the Convent of Our Lady of the Angels in Irondale (Alabama), has as its main reference the Poor Clare nun and social communicator Mother Angelica (1923-2016), who built the project from scratch and who since 1995 has broadcast beyond the United States.
The appointment of Montserrat Alvarado generated immediate positive reactions, especially from the Mexican Episcopal Conference (CEM), whose presidency recognized that «this is a historic event, as she is the first laywoman to assume this responsibility in service of the universal Church. We thank God for this sign of trust in the lay faithful and for the valuable contribution of women in the Church’s evangelizing mission.»
They also stated that «as a Church pilgrim in Mexico, we celebrate with special pride that a daughter of our nation contributes, from this important service, to communicating Christ to the world.» They entrusted Alvarado and her work to Our Lady of Guadalupe.