Pope Leo XIV Appoints EWTN News President Maria Montserrat Alvarado to Head Vatican Communications

Pope Leo XIV named Maria Montserrat Alvarado as the new prefect of the Dicastery of Communications on Tuesday. She replaces Paolo Ruffini and becomes the first woman and layperson to lead the office that oversees the Vatican’s television, radio, online, publishing and newspaper operations. The Dicastery of Communications holds one of the largest budgets among Vatican departments.

Alvarado currently serves as president and chief operating officer of EWTN News, which describes itself as the world’s largest Catholic media organization. , and runs television, radio, online and publishing operations in seven languages. Its network includes the Catholic News Agency, National Catholic Register and ACI Group news agencies.

Alvarado was born in Mexico City and joined EWTN as a news anchor. She previously held leadership positions at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, an organization that has pursued church-state legal cases in the United States to protect religious freedom. Pope Leo XIV, who was born in Chicago, has called for changes in how the Catholic Church communicates its message.

He has summoned cardinals to the Vatican later this month for a meeting to reassess the effectiveness of ecclesial communication, including at the level of the Holy See, from a more explicitly missionary perspective. During the pontificate of Pope Francis, EWTN’s programming often featured English-speaking critics of the Argentine pope.

In 2021, Francis described such media criticism as “the work of the devil” in comments widely interpreted as directed at EWTN.