Pope Leo XIV has given an important sign of continuity with Francis in his intention to allow women into positions of responsibility in the Vatican, with the appointment of a laywoman to head the Dicastery for Communication. But at the same time, he has appointed someone with a profile apparently somewhat incompatible with his predecessor, a demonstration of Robert Prevost’s balancing act to pacify the most opposed sectors in the Church. This is María Montserrat Alvarado, 47 years old, president and chief operating officer since 2023 of the ultra-conservative American television network EWTN News, according to the Holy See’s midday daily bulletin. Her profile, in fact, has partly overshadowed the news that she is the first laywoman to hold a high position in the Vatican.
This network, founded in 1981 by a Poor Clare nun, Mother Angelica, and now the largest Catholic media outlet in the world, is a kind of Catholic Fox News, funded by large private donors. It was very controversial for its hostility to Pope Francis, within the large campaign of harassment against the Pontiff launched from the American Catholic far right and the Donald Trump environment, although this was mainly before Alvarado’s arrival at the network’s top in 2023. To the point that, in 2021, the Argentine pontiff described its attacks as “the work of the devil.”
“There is a large Catholic television network that continuously speaks ill of the Pope without any problem. I may personally deserve these attacks and insults because I am a sinner, but the Church does not deserve this,” Francis said in 2012 in a clear reference to EWTN. In Spain, in 2022, the Bishop of San Sebastián, Fernando Prado, even banned his diocesan channel from broadcasting any content from the network due to its criticisms of Bergoglio.
A year after Francis’s death, the surprise is that the president of EWTN will have a key position in Leo XIV’s pontificate, as she will lead the department that manages his image and the entire Vatican media network. From the radio station to the Osservatore Romano, as well as the Press Office and relations with journalists. According to the Wall Street Journal, Alvarado “is on the front lines of American cultural battles.”
She is not the first woman to be appointed prefect of a dicastery, as shortly before his death, in January 2025, Francis had already placed the nun Simona Brambilla in charge of one of the most important ones, dedicated to Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. Although at the same time he somewhat escorted her with the simultaneous appointment of a cardinal as pro-prefect, the Asturian Salesian Ángel Fernández Artime. However, it is the first time a laywoman has reached such a high position in the Holy See. She will begin her work on November 1.
Alvarado replaces Paolo Ruffini, 70 years old, appointed in 2018 and who was the first layman to hold the position of prefect in the Vatican. The new head was born in Mexico City and has been a U.S. citizen since 2008. She graduated from Florida International University and George Washington University, according to information provided by the Holy See. From 2009 to 2023, she held senior positions at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, specializing in U.S. legal cases on religious matters.
Since 2023, she has been president and chief operating officer of EWTN News, the news division of Eternal Word Television Network. This company, based in Washington, has 11 global television channels and numerous regional channels, with 24-hour news, reaching 400 million households in more than 160 countries. The media conglomerate also owns the ACI, Catholic News Agency, and National Catholic Register agencies.
In a statement released by Vatican News, the Holy See’s news agency, Alvarado said the appointment was “unexpected.” “I welcome it with the sincere desire to serve the Holy Father at the beginning of his pontificate. I thank Paolo Ruffini for his leadership in recent years and look forward to continuing, with friendship and hope, the important work of strengthening the Dicastery so that it continues to serve the Church in Rome and elsewhere, communicating Christ to the world.”
During Francis’s pontificate, between 2013 and 2025, the number of women in leadership positions in the Vatican increased. According to the latest data provided by the Holy See last year, in the period 2013-2023 the percentage of women in the small state rose from 19.2% to 23.4%. Furthermore, through the 2022 Apostolic Constitution Praedicate Evangelium, which reformed the Curia, the Argentine Pope opened the way for laypeople, including women, to lead a dicastery, something that until then had been reserved only for cardinals and archbishops.
During his tenure, Francis appointed two women to high positions, in addition to Brambilla. In 2016, Bárbara Jatta as director of the Vatican Museums, which have always been led by laypeople, and in 2022, the nun Raffaella Petrini as secretary general of the Vatican City Governorate, a position that had always been held by a bishop.
