✝️ 3 Reasons Why Pope Leo’s Appointee To Lead Vatican Communications Stands Out 🔌
Weekend Plug-in 🔌
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A few years ago, while working on a profile of Christian attorney Lori Windham, I interviewed her boss at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.
I found Maria Montserrat “Montse” Alvarado, then Becket’s vice president and chief operating officer, personable and engaging.
I remember that Alvarado praised Windham’s balance as “an impressive professional, a devoted mother and a beautiful Christian.
“I’ve worked with her for over a decade at the Becket Fund,” Alvarado told me in 2022. “She had a path similar to me, where we started as interns and kind of made our way up the ranks. And she’s a great leader, a great example of what it is to be an integrated professional, someone who takes their job very seriously, excels beautifully, manages to balance piety and technique, as I like to call it, and performs that way at the highest level, in the highest courts in the land.”
Alvarado was reflecting on Windham’s success arguing cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.
But I was reminded of the conversation because Alvarado herself made international headlines this week.
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FEMALE. CONSERVATIVE. YOUNG.
Pope Leo XIV’s appointment Tuesday of Alvarado to lead the Vatican’s communications office stands out for three major reasons:
— First, the Mexican American media executive will become the first woman to serve in that key role, effective Nov. 1.
Joshua McElwee, Reuters’ Vatican correspondent, notes:
Maria Montserrat Alvarado, originally from Mexico City, will lead the Vatican's Dicastery for Communications, a sprawling operation that oversees the Vatican’s news portal, radio station, newspaper and press office, among other entities.
The Associated Press explains:
By naming a layperson and a woman to head a major Vatican department, Leo is following in the footsteps of Pope Francis who promoted several women to leadership positions in the Holy See governing hierarchy, which remains dominated by male clergy.
The Chicago-born Leo has indicated he wants to reform the way the Catholic Church at large, and the Vatican in particular, communicates its message to the world. Toward that end, he has summoned cardinals to the Vatican later this month for a meeting to “reassess the effectiveness of ecclesial communication, including at the level of the Holy See, from a more explicitly missionary perspective,” among other topics.
Montse Alvarado visits with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican on Sept. 6, 2025. (Vatican Media)
— Second, Alvarado will arrive at the Vatican after working since 2023 as president and chief operating officer of EWTN News — a Catholic network known for its conservative views.
Justin McLellan, Vatican correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter, which reports Catholic news from a left-of-center position, points out:
Before joining EWTN, Alvarado was executive director of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a Washington-based nonprofit law firm specializing in religious liberty cases. A 2017 opinion essay in The Wall Street Journal said that Alvarado saw herself in that role as "a defender of all religion" who worked "on the front lines of America's culture wars."
Alvarado is active with a number of organizations championing conservative causes, serving on boards for the Patients' Rights Action Fund, which advocates for protections for vulnerable adults in places where physician-assisted suicide is legal; the GIVEN Institute, the libertarian Acton Institute and Benedictine College, a conservative Catholic school in Kansas. She is also a consultant to the United States' bishops' conference's committee for religious freedom.
At the same time, via Religion News Service’s Aleja Hertzler-McCain, this seems like important context:
Alvarado began hosting “EWTN News in Depth” in early 2021, several months before Pope Francis criticized “a large Catholic television channel,” widely believed to be EWTN, for “continually speaking ill of the pope” and attacking the church. She became president and chief operating officer in 2023.
However, church observers say she has never been part of the anti-Francis wing of the church, and her allies praise her leadership expertise and dedication.
“ She loved Pope Francis, and since the beginning she has been supporting of Pope Leo XIV,” José Manuel de Urquidi, a leader in digital evangelization who sat at then-Cardinal Robert Prevost’s table at the Synod on Synodality, told RNS. “ The Holy Father will have someone who’s extremely smart and full of God helping him spread Christ’s message into this world in the best way possible,” he said.
De Urquidi said Alvarado doesn’t fall into “a false dichotomy” about what it means to be Catholic, neither focusing solely on doctrine and liturgy nor on social issues. “ She really knows Matthew 25:35 is how we’ll be judged at the end of our lives, but she’s also at the same time just a missionary full of love for Christ and his church and truth,” he said.
Maria Montserrat “Montse” Alvarado is Pope Leo XIV’s selection to serve as Prefect of the Dicastery for Communication. (Vatican Media)
— Third, Alvarado “will be the youngest person to lead a Vatican dicastery in recent memory,” according to RNS.
Hertzler-McCain quotes Massimo Faggioli, a papal biographer and church historian:
Alvarado’s age also stands out. She is currently 39 years old, according to Catholic-Hierarchy.org. “ By Italian standards, she’s a baby,” Faggioli said. “ Italy is really a gerontocracy,” where people appointed to important positions in their 50s are considered young, Faggioli said.
“This is a signal of change,” Faggioli said.
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IN OUR 2022 CONVERSATION, Alvarado offered insight into Windham’s — and her own — outlook concerning religious freedom.
Alvarado noted that Windham had represented Christian and non-Christian clients alike.
“She is always curious and respectful about what other people believe and why they believe it,” Alvarado said.
Alvarado pointed to the role of Windham, a Church of Christ member, in defending Catholic nuns who fought to be exempted from a federal contraception mandate.
“It’s been beautiful to see her, as a non-Catholic, get close to the mission of the Little Sisters of the Poor,” Alvarado said.
I recall, too, that Alvarado commended Windham’s mix of professionalism, joy and curiosity.
“In the law, it’s unusual to have such a strong woman who also has such a tender heart,” Alvarado said.
Perhaps the traits Alvarado extolled in Windham offer some insight into the values she’ll bring into her new role at the Vatican.
Inside The Godbeat
I mentioned artificial intelligence last week and am going to reference it again this week.
Full disclosure: This probably won’t be the last time.
Here at Religion Unplugged, managing editor Cassidy Grom reports on Catholic leaders embracing Pope Leo XIV’s stance on AI and pondering implementation. Meanwhile, Godbeat legend Richard N. Ostling delves into chatbots and the soul, asking, “Has AI transformed religion?”
And at The Christian Chronicle, my colleague Calvin Cockrell explores what happens when artificial intelligence meets authentic faith.
The Final Plug
Who doesn’t want to read a story about an old pickup truck in Illinois farm country?
This piece is personal for Holly Meyer, the Nashville, Tennessee-based religion news editor for The Associated Press.
Go ahead: Find out why there’s “joy in the journey.”
Happy Friday, everyone! Enjoy the weekend.
Bobby Ross Jr. writes the Weekend Plug-in column for Religion Unplugged and serves as editor-in-chief of The Christian Chronicle. A former religion writer for The Associated Press and The Oklahoman, Ross has reported from all 50 states and 20 nations. He has covered religion since 1999.