Vatican communications gets first laywoman leader

Maria Montserrat Alvarado, a 39-year-old US media executive, becomes the new head of Vatican communications this week, making her the first laywoman to head a Vatican ministry.

Alvarado, who is Mexican-American and uses the name Montse, will also be the first non-Italian to lead the department overseeing the Vatican's television, radio and print operations and its press office.

Her appointment was announced in June by Pope Leo XIV. Alvarado said in an interview with EWTN News that she did not apply through a standard process and that the decision was "an appointment from the Holy Father".

Alvarado has been president and chief operating officer of EWTN News since 2023. EWTN News is the news division of the Eternal Word Television Network, a major Catholic television network in the United States.

The network has had a strained relationship with the Vatican at times. Some of its programmes were known for criticism of Pope Francis, Pope Leo's predecessor. In 2021, Francis referred to a major Catholic television channel that was "constantly criticising the pope".

Alvarado succeeds Paolo Ruffini, who was appointed by Francis in 2018 and was the first layperson to lead a Vatican dicastery, the Vatican term for a ministry.

Lucetta Scaraffia, founder of the Vatican women's magazine Women Church World and a history professor at Rome's La Sapienza University, told AFP that Alvarado had been chosen for her skills and qualities and said the appointment showed a different attitude toward women.

Alvarado was born in Mexico, moved to the United States as a child and grew up in Miami. Before EWTN, she worked for 14 years at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a non-profit law firm that defends religious freedom.