Vatican names first laywoman to head communications

The Vatican has appointed 39-year-old Mexican-American media executive, Maria Alvarado, as its new head of communications, making her the first laywoman and first non-Italian to lead the department. Alvarado, who assumes office this week, will oversee the Vatican’s television, radio and print operations, as well as its press office. Her appointment, announced in June by Pope Leo XIV, marks a significant development in the Church’s leadership structure, where senior positions traditionally held by women have largely been occupied by nuns.

Alvarado, popularly known as Montse, said her appointment came directly from the Pope rather than through a conventional recruitment process. “I didn’t apply; I wasn’t chosen” through a standard application process, she said in an interview with EWTN News, where she has served as president and chief operating officer since 2023. “It was an appointment from the Holy Father,” she added.

EWTN News is the news division of the Eternal Word Television Network, the largest Catholic television network in the United States. Founded by a nun, the network has become an influential platform among conservative Catholics. However, some of its programmes have had a strained relationship with the Vatican, particularly during the papacy of Pope Francis, whose reform agenda attracted criticism from sections of the Church’s conservative wing.

In 2021, Francis appeared to criticise the network, lamenting what he described as a major Catholic television channel that was constantly criticising the Pope. Alvarado was a presenter for EWTN at the time. Born in Mexico, Alvarado moved to the United States as a child and grew up in Miami before relocating to Washington for her studies. She spent 14 years working at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a non-profit law firm specialising in the defence of religious freedom, before taking charge of EWTN News in 2023.

At EWTN, she oversaw international media platforms producing content in seven languages across television, print, radio, digital media and social networks. Alvarado said she had not originally envisaged a career in media and communications, explaining that her ambition had been to get married and have children. She was previously married, but the marriage was subsequently annulled by the Catholic Church.

She succeeds 70-year-old Paolo Ruffini, who was appointed by Pope Francis in 2018 and became the first layperson to head a Vatican dicastery, the Church’s equivalent of a government ministry. Lucetta Scaraffia, founder of the Vatican women’s magazine, Women Church World, and a professor of history at Rome’s La Sapienza University, described Alvarado’s appointment as a recognition of her professional abilities.

“This is a woman who has been chosen for her skills and her qualities,” Scaraffia told AFP. She said Alvarado’s appointment as the first non-Italian to head the department would bring a different approach and a more international outlook to Vatican communications. Scaraffia also described Alvarado as an accomplished communications manager who had built her career through professional experience.

According to her, the appointment suggests that Pope Leo has a different attitude towards women in leadership positions within the Catholic Church. AFP