Mexican communicator María Montserrat Alvarado took up the prefecture of the Dicastery for Communication of the Holy See on November 1, becoming the first lay woman to lead a Vatican dicastery. The appointment, announced by Pope Leo XIV in June, took effect on Sunday and was made public by Vatican News, the Holy See's official media outlet.
Alvarado, 39, moves to Rome after serving as president of EWTN News, the news division of the largest Catholic television network in the United States. She succeeds the Italian Paolo Ruffini. The post is far from minor: the dicastery in practice coordinates the public voice of the universal Church, overseeing the media that report daily on the activities and words of the Pope in dozens of languages, including Spanish, for millions of Catholics worldwide.
Vatican News stressed that Alvarado is the first woman not in consecrated life to head a dicastery of the Roman Curia. The distinction matters: in January 2025 the religious sister Simona Brambilla was named prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life, but Brambilla belongs to a religious congregation. Alvarado is a lay professional, a wife and communicator who reached the post through her career in media. Her predecessor also marked a milestone when Pope Francis appointed him in 2018 as the first layman to lead a dicastery. Under Leo XIV, the opening of leadership posts to lay men and women takes another step, in continuity with the reform of the Curia pursued in recent years.
Alvarado has said the appointment surprised her. In an interview with EWTN News she explained that she submitted no candidacy and went through no usual selection process; in her words, it was a direct decision of the Holy Father.
Born in Mexico City and raised in the United States, Alvarado brings a dual Latino and American background together with experience in international media. In 2023 she became president and chief operating officer of EWTN News, overseeing platforms that produce content in seven languages. Her work there consisted of telling the life of the Church to highly diverse audiences across television and digital platforms.
Lucetta Scaraffia, founder of the Vatican-linked magazine Mulieres Ecclesia Mundus and professor of history at La Sapienza University of Rome, described Alvarado as a woman chosen for her competence and qualities. Scaraffia also noted that Alvarado is the first non-Italian to hold the post, which she said could bring a different way of working and a more international perspective.
The Dicastery for Communication was created by Pope Francis on June 27, 2015, as part of the reform of the Roman Curia, to unify and give coherence to the Holy See's entire communications system. It oversees Vatican News, Vatican Radio and the daily L'Osservatore Romano. It also includes Vatican Media, with its photography, audio and video services; the Holy See Press Office, which serves accredited journalists from around the world; and historic structures such as the Vatican publishing house, printing press and film library. Together they form a team of about 500 people.
The task is not only technical. Beyond operations and technology, the dicastery attends to the theological and pastoral dimensions of the Church's communication: how the Gospel is proclaimed, how the Pope's teaching is conveyed, and how local Churches are accompanied in their own communication. For Spanish-speaking Catholics, the news carries particular resonance, since Vatican Radio and Vatican News in Spanish are part of daily life for many Catholic communities in Latin America and among Latinos in the United States.
The appointment also carries a message within the Church: service to the mission depends not on state of life but on fidelity and preparation. Priests, religious and laypeople are each called, according to their vocation, to place their gifts at the service of proclaiming the Gospel.