Por the first time in the centuries-old history of the Holy See a woman will lead the entire communication machine of the Vatican. Secular. Of Mexican origins. Who speaks fluent Spanish, English and Italian, who sings jazz in his free moments and who learned to defend freedom of conscience in the corridors of American justice. Is called Maria Montserrat Alvarado, but everyone knows her as Montse. Pope Leo XIV appointed her prefect of the Dicastery for Communication of the Holy See, an enormous media universe, which from November will be under her responsibility.
Maria Montserrat Alvarado, the woman who changes the voice of the Vatican
Montse Alvarado she came to the United States as a childfollowing his diplomat father, then Mexican consul in Miami. Growing up between two cultures, two languages, two ways of understanding the world probably shaped that in her ability to move with ease between different environments that distinguishes her today. She also lived in Montreal, studied in American universities, built herself a career in law and activism before journalism.
Religious freedom first of all
For fourteen years he worked at Becket Fund for Religious Libertya Washington-based nonprofit legal organization that defends religious freedom in court, not just the Catholic one, but of anyone who sees it threatened. Nuns forced to violate their conscience by health legislation, Jewish schools discriminated against in public funding, Muslim prisoners on death row denied spiritual assistance: Montse Alvarado brought these cases to the United States Supreme Courtthe highest judicial authority in the country. A dark, technical work, far from the spotlight, but profoundly political.
Montserrat Alvarado, She is the first lay woman to hold a role so close to the Pontiff. (@Instagram Vatican News)
From the courtroom to television direction
Then, in 2023, the leap: Alvarado leaves the world of law and assumes the presidency of EWTN News or the Eternal Word Television Network. It is the largest and most influential Catholic network in the English-speaking world, founded in the 1980s by Mother Angelica, a Poor Clare nun from Alabama who built a media empire practically from nothing. Today EWTN reaches two hundred and two countries And broadcasts in eleven languages.
The change at the top is a first time that is worth a symbol
Alvarado takes the place of Paolo Ruffini, who has led the ministry since 2018 and will retire in October when he turns seventy and in this succession, there is a symbolic dimension that cannot be ignored. Montserrat Alvarado is the first lay woman to play a role of this magnitude in the Vatican palacesthe. A woman with a markedly political background, accustomed to the compromises and strategies of American law, who comes to coordinate the public voice of one of the oldest and most influential institutions on the planet.
Maria Montserrat Alvarado, when staying in the middle is the best choice
His profile is, in every sense, that of a person who has learned to stay in the middle: between cultures, between languages, between legal traditions. Who defended the rights of Muslims and nuns with the same intensity. Who sings jazz, a genre built on improvisation, on listening, on the ability to respond in real time to whoever is playing next to you. Perhaps it is no coincidence that Pope Leo XIV chose her for a rather difficult task: making the Vatican speak to the contemporary world without losing itself.