Montserrat Alvarado, the first woman (and layperson) at the head of the Vatican's communication

Pope Leo XIV has appointed Montserrat Alvarado, previously president and chief operating officer of the American Catholic news outlet EWTN News, as the new prefect of the Dicastery for Communication. The Mexican has thus become the first woman and layperson to lead a Vatican ministry alone. According to Vatican reports, on November 1, Alvarado will assume the role of one of the largest Vatican ministries, which oversees the Holy See's communication systems, including Vatican News, Vatican Radio, L'Osservatore Romano, Vatican Media (audio, image, and video services), the Holy See Press Office, the Vatican Publishing House, the Vatican Printing Press, and the Vatican Film Library.

Montserrat Alvarado will succeed the current head of the Holy See's media conglomerate, Italian Paolo Ruffini, who has led Vatican communication since 2018 and was the first layperson to hold this position. Although Alvarado will not be the only prefect at the Vatican, she will be the sole leader, which has never happened before. In 2025, Pope Francis chose Sister Simona Brambilla as prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, but she held the position alongside Spanish Cardinal Ángel Fernández Artime.

In a statement released by Vatican News, Montserrat Alvarado stated: "While this appointment has been unexpected, I welcome it with the sincere desire to serve the Holy Father at the beginning of his pontificate." "I thank Paolo Ruffini for his leadership in recent years and I hope to continue, with friendship and hope, the important work of strengthening the dicastery so that it may continue to serve the Church in Rome and elsewhere, communicating Christ to the world," she detailed.

Born in Mexico City, Alvarado is recognized as a "proud Latina Catholic". Better known as Montse in church circles, she studied at Florida International University and George Washington University. Between 2009 and 2023, she held positions of responsibility at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty,a recognized non-profit organization that defends religious freedom as a human right before the Supreme Court of the United States. She has also held various positions in the Church dedicated to the new evangelization, from defending freedom of expression to the role of women and the treatment of marginalized communities in society. And since 2023, she has been working at EWTN News, where she has hosted a weekly debate on current Church, political, and cultural affairs from a Catholic perspective. Montserrat Alvarado is "a defender of all religions on the front lines of the United States culture wars," as described by the Wall Street Journal.

Who are the women with high positions in the Vatican?

Until recently, Vatican positions were only held by male cardinals. But with the appointment of Mexican Montserrat Alvarado, women are gradually occupying high positions in the Roman Curia. In this way, Pope Leo XIV continues the process of reform of Vatican communication, as the cardinals had requested in the last meeting with the Pope. In fact, during the pontificate of Pope Francis, the number of women holding positions in the Vatican increased significantly: it went from 19% to 24% of the total 4,000 employees.

The first major step was the appointment of Barbara Jatta as director of the Vatican Museums in 2017. Since then, deputy directors of the Vatican Press Office have been appointed, such as the Spaniard Paloma García Ovejero and her successors. And on February 13 of this year 2026, Pope Leo XIV chose the nun Nina Benedikta Krapić as deputy director of the Press Office of the Holy See, replacing the Brazilian laywoman Cristiane Murray, who had held the position since July 2019.

The current Pope also appointed the Italian nun Tiziana Merletti as secretary of the dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life. Currently, this dicastery is led by prefect Simona Brambilla, who was, in fact, the first woman to hold the position of prefect of a Vatican ministry, chosen previously by Pope Francis. Later, Leo XIV also appointed Brambilla as a member of the Commission for Confidential Matters, an body that determines on a case-by-case basis which legal, economic, or financial acts must be kept confidential.

The first secretary of a dicastery was the nun Alessandra Smerilli, appointed in August 2021 to the one for Integral Human Development Service. Pope Francis also appointed the nun Raffaella Petrini as president of the Governorate of Vatican City State and of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City, thus becoming the first woman to hold this position. For Sister Petrini to continue in her role, Leo XIV had to issue a document repealing the law by which only cardinals could be members of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City and preside over it.