Vatican’s new comms chief first woman to head office
ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE—Pope Leo XIV introduced the Vatican’s new communications chief on Friday, praising her experience, creativity and “liveliness,” in a sign that a new and informal style might guide a crucial area of the Holy See’s mission that has often come under criticism.
María Montserrat Alvarado, the Mexican American former head of the Washington-based EWTN Catholic broadcasting empire, took over as prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication on Nov. 1, succeeding Paolo Ruffini.
Alvarado is the first woman to lead the office, one of the largest and costliest parts of the Holy See bureaucracy. The office has long faced criticism from Vatican financial officials over its budget and staffing, and from journalists who complain that it is too slow to respond to requests for information and comment—if it responds at all.
Overall, Vatican communications is very much beholden to the generally secretive and defensive ethos that guides the Holy See, where the concept of the public’s right to know is unheard of and there is often a general distrust of secular media.
Speaking casually
But Alvarado offered a glimpse of her communications style at her inaugural press conference this week, joining Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni for the traditional briefing to journalists ahead of Leo’s three-nation tour of Latin America.
Bruni provided details on Leo’s schedule and fielded questions, particularly about his health. Alvarado made clear that she had access to Leo and could speak for him, including about how he felt about returning home to Peru and what he wanted people to understand about the trip.
“Certainly the homecoming piece is very important to him. He feels that very deeply. This is a place that gave him his ministry and inspired who he is as a pastor,” she said. “He is so excited,” she said. “He knows these streets.”
She relayed a message he had prepared for journalists and asked her to share, as if to assert a degree of proximity that Vatican spokespeople haven’t necessarily enjoyed since the era of St. John Paul II’s spokesperson Joaquín Navarro-Valls.
In the message, Leo said he hoped the media would help him show the world how the diversity of the Latin American church can be a force for healing and peace.
Alvarado spoke casually and even sparked a minor media kerfuffle when some Spanish-language outlets took too seriously her quip that Leo would, eventually, go to Mexico. It was something the Vatican foreign minister had said the previous week, but nevertheless caught some by surprise.
Gone were the careful and sometimes stiff institutional responses that usually characterize Vatican communications. In their place was a looser style of informality.
Addressed by nickname
Leo has wanted to reboot Church communications and has long expressed appreciation for the work of journalists
The American Pope told reporters on Friday that Alvarado’s arrival would address some of the “challenging” concerns facing Vatican communications.
“And so now we have the wonderful experience, the creativity and the life and liveliness of Montse, who will be accompanying us on this trip and helping the Vatican and myself in the very important dimension of communication,” he said, using Alvarado’s nickname.
Leo has said he wants to reform the way the Catholic Church in general, and the Holy See in particular, communicates to make it come from more of an “explicitly missionary perspective.”
Born in Mexico City, Alvarado moved to the United States as a young girl. She joined EWTN as a news anchor in 2021 after holding leadership positions in the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which has waged church-state legal battles in the United States to protect religious freedom.
In an interview with EWTN before leaving, Alvarado said she believed Leo tapped her because “we are in a moment where digital communications and traditional communications are coming together.”
She said Leo “was looking for a next-generation professional, thatʼs clear, and God willing, I’ll be able to fill those shoes.”
