ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (AP) — 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, D.C.-based EWTN Catholic broadcasting empire, took over as prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communications on Nov. 1, succeeding Paolo Ruffini.
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Alvarado is the first woman to lead the office, one of the largest and costliest parts of the Holy See bureaucracy. Its size reflects the Vatican's mission to communicate the Catholic faith around the world.
But 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.
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.
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.
“He is so excited,” she said. “He knows these streets.”
The American pope, who has long expressed appreciation for the work of journalists, told reporters 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."
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, that's clear, and God willing, I'll be able to fill those shoes.”
EWTN News, which Alvarado had led since 2023, describes itself as the world's largest Catholic media organization. Its operations include television, radio, online and publishing operations in seven languages. The EWTN family, which generally skews conservative, includes the Catholic News Agency, National Catholic Register and ACI Group news agencies, among other branches.
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 U.S. to protect religious freedom.
Alvarado is taking on a demanding job. The dicastery controls the Vatican press office, the television, radio, online, publishing, photographic and newspaper operations, all working in multiple languages. Vatican Media has modernized much of its content in recent years, but not all of it: the daily newspaper L’Osservatore Romano still publishes a print afternoon edition.
In the EWTN interview, Alvarado said her main priority would be to communicate the Catholic faith and what is in Leo’s heart, not her own vision.
“Communicating Christ to the world is the mandate of the communications dicastery, and it will be done in concert with the Holy Father,” she said. “In no way am I imposing a vision. I'm very much receiving one and executing it.”
