CT News
June 3, 2026 : Pope Leo XIV has appointed Maria Montserrat Alvarado, president and chief operating officer of EWTN News, as prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication. The appointment will take effect Nov. 1.
Since 2023, Alvarado has overseen EWTN News’ global and multilingual news operations across television, radio, print, digital, and social media platforms. During her tenure, she helped expand the network’s international news presence and deepen collaboration across its multilingual platforms.
The Dicastery for Communication was established by Pope Francis in 2015 as part of his reform of the Roman Curia, bringing together the Holy See’s various communications entities, including Vatican News, Vatican Radio, L’Osservatore Romano, Vatican Media, the Vatican Publishing house and printing press, Filmoteca Vaticana, and the Holy See Press Office. Appointed for a five-year term, the prefect is responsible for overseeing the entire media network of the Holy See.
Alvarado succeeds Paolo Ruffini, whom Pope Francis appointed in 2018 as the first lay prefect of a dicastery in the Roman Curia.
In recent years, Pope Francis entrusted a growing number of leadership roles in the Vatican to laymen and laywomen, including several senior appointments for women religious. Alvarado’s appointment continues that development and marks the first time a woman who has not taken religious vows as a nun or a sister has been appointed to lead a dicastery of the Holy See.
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