VATICAN CITY — Maria Montserrat Alvarado, a 39-year-old American media executive, is taking over as head of Vatican communications this week, the first laywoman to lead a Vatican ministry, according to CBS News.
Alvarado, who is Mexican American, is also the first non-Italian to lead the department, which oversees the Vatican’s TV, radio and print operations and its press office.
She has been president and chief operating officer of EWTN News since 2023.
‘I didn’t apply, I wasn’t chosen’ through a standard process, she told EWTN. Pope Leo XIV called it ‘an appointment from the Holy Father.’
Analysts say the appointment signals that Pope Leo views women differently than his predecessors at the Vatican, where nuns have tended to hold the senior posts held by women, CBS News reported.
Sources: CBS News. Thee Arizona Times uses AI-assisted reporting reviewed against the sources listed.
Photo: Thomas J. O'Halloran / Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
