The Vatican media will have a new head. Or rather, a new female head. Her name is Montserrat Alvarado, Mexican by birth and American by adoption, and she will be the new prefect of the Dicastery for Communication, starting November 1. For the first time, a woman will lead the media galaxy of the Holy See. Additionally, she will be the first laywoman chosen to hold the position of prefect alone. Alvarado will be in charge of one of the largest Vatican “ministries,” which oversees Vatican News, Radio Vaticana, L’Osservatore Romano, Vatican Media, the Holy See Press Office, the Vatican Publishing House, the Vatican Printing House, and the Vatican Film Library.
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The surprise was great this Tuesday within the Leonine walls, when news began to circulate that there would be an appointment to replace Paolo Ruffini, 70 years old, a veteran journalist from RAI, the Italian public television, and the first layman to lead Vatican communication since 2018. The astonishment increased when the midday bulletin revealed Alvarado’s identity, current director of EWTN, a powerful conservative-oriented Catholic media group that, before her arrival, had strongly opposed Pope Francis.
Born in Mexico City, Alvarado, whom many in the ecclesial environment simply call “Montse,” studied at Florida International University and George Washington University. Between 2009 and 2023, she held positions of responsibility at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a nonprofit organization that, according to its website, defends religious freedom for all faiths, “from Anglicans to Zoroastrianism.” She also collaborates with the Committee for Religious Freedom of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The strategy
Alvarado’s appointment is interpreted as a gesture of openness from Leo XIV towards conservative Catholic sectors in the U.S.
Her arrival at EWTN occurred in 2023, although at a stage when tensions with Bergoglio had already decreased compared to previous years. Still, the memory of those confrontations remains. During a meeting with Jesuits in Slovakia in 2021, Francis denounced the existence of a “large Catholic television network that continuously speaks ill of the Pope” and added: “It is also the work of the devil.”
The appointment also seems to reflect Leo XIV’s desire to build bridges with ecclesial sectors that during Francis’s pontificate had often been marginalized.
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“Although this appointment was unexpected, I receive it with the sincere desire to serve the Holy Father at the beginning of his pontificate,” Alvarado said in an initial statement released by Vatican News. “I thank Paolo Ruffini for his leadership and hope to continue, with friendship and hope, the important task of strengthening the Dicastery so that it continues to serve the Church in Rome and worldwide, communicating Christ to the world.”
Last September, Alvarado was received in audience by Leo XIV along with the Archbishop of Philadelphia, Nelson Pérez, who described her as “a vibrant, intelligent, and curious young Catholic leader.”
Ruffini, for his part, said goodbye with a letter addressed to the dicastery’s workers. “I have entered the final stretch of my career and soon, having reached 70 years, the age set for retirement, I will pass the baton to Montserrat Alvarado as the next prefect,” he wrote. “We know each other well and in the coming months we will work closely together, in the spirit of communion that unites us in the Church.”
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