Pope Leo XIV appoints EWTN'S President and COO as the Prefect of the Dicastery for Communication

 

Maria Montserrat Alvarado 

Pope

• Pope Leo XIV
• Appointments
• Dicastery for Communication

Pope Leo XIV appoints lay woman Prefect of Dicastery for Communication

Currently President and COO of EWTN News, Maria Montserrat Alvarado will succeed Paolo Ruffini in November, continuing the path of reform and renewal initiated by Pope Francis.

Vatican News

Pope Leo XIV has appointed Maria Montserrat Alvarado, currently President and Chief Operating Officer of EWTN News, as Prefect of the Dicastery for Communication, effective from 1 November 2026.

Born in Mexico City, Alvarado earned academic degrees from Florida International University and George Washington University. From 2009 to 2023, she held leadership positions at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, serving in initiatives dedicated to the defense of religious freedom and the promotion of human dignity.

Since 2023, she has served as President and Chief Operating Officer of EWTN News, the news division of the Eternal Word Television Network, overseeing international media platforms producing content in seven languages across television, radio, print, digital, and social media.

With the appointment of Alvarado, Pope Leo XIV continues the path of reform and renewal of the Roman Curia initiated by Pope Francis, which has seen lay faithful, men and women, entrusted with positions of leadership and responsibility in the service of the universal Church. Alvarado is the first non-religious woman to be appointed prefect of a dicastery of the Holy See.

Established by Pope Francis on 27 June 2015 as part of the reform of the Roman Curia, the Dicastery for Communication oversees the Holy See’s communications systems, including Vatican News, Vatican Radio, L’Osservatore Romano, Vatican Media (photo, audio & video services), the Holy See Press Office, the Vatican publishing house, the Vatican Printing press, and the Filmoteca Vaticana. In addition to the operational and technological functions assigned to it, the Dicastery also deepens and develops the properly theological and pastoral aspects of the Church’s activity in the field of communication. Alvarado will succeed Paolo Ruffini, whom Pope Francis appointed in 2018 as the first lay prefect of a dicastery of the Roman Curia, who will be 70 next October.

In a statement released following the announcement, Alvarado said: “While this appointment was unexpected, I receive it with a sincere desire to serve the Holy Father as he begins his pontificate. And I am grateful to Paolo Ruffini for his leadership throughout the last years and look forward to continuing, in friendship and hope, the important work of strengthening the dicastery so it may continue to serve the Church in Rome and everywhere to communicate Christ to the world.”

Ruffini sent a letter to the staff of the Dicastery for Communication and stated: “The Dicastery has embedded in its very DNA the duty to remain constantly attuned to the rapidly changing world of communication. From the moment we were born as an institution, our guiding star has been and remains this: never to stop, to pass the baton while continuing to run, to be present in the here and now, in this very hour, as the touchstone of a communication that is the instrument of a communion that grows over time. I have entered the final lap of the race, before the moment when—in the long journey that is our working life—having reached the age of 70, the age set for retirement, I will pass the baton to Montserrat Alvarado as the next prefect. We know each other well. And in the coming months, we will work closely together, in the spirit of communion that unites us in the Church”.

“I am grateful to the big family of Dicastery – he added - for the journey we have taken together over these eight years. We are beginning now the process over the coming months for a smooth transition in order to help the Dicastery continue to grow in service to the Holy Father and in its mission of serving in a spirit of unity and openness.”

Michael P. Warsaw, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of EWTN, said Alvarado had earned “the trust and respect of everyone privileged to work alongside her” during her years with the network. He added: “We offer her our prayers, our encouragement, and the full support of the EWTN family as she begins this important mission in service to Pope Leo XIV and his pontificate.”

Vatican & Pope Leo release video for June's special prayer intention: the values of sports

 

Pope

• Pope Leo XIV
• prayer
• sport

Pope's June prayer intention: 'for the values of sports'

Pope Leo XIV releases his prayer intention for the month of June and invites Catholics to pray 'for the values of sports,' that all sport may promote peace, fraternity and communion.

By Deborah Castellano Lubov

Pope Leo XIV has urged Catholics across the globe to join him this June in praying for the values of sports.

He released the monthly “Pray with the Pope” video on Thursday, which is prepared by the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network.

In his prayer, the Pope recognized the great benefits but also the inherent challenges in the world of sport and prayed that sporting events may promote peace and fraternity.

School of fraternity, peace, and encounter

He thanks the Lord for "the gift of sport, for those who glorify God through the exercise of their bodies, for the friendships born on the field, and the joy of playing as a team.”

As Pope Leo recalls how the Lord teaches us “that in life, as in the game, no one is saved alone,” the Holy Father insists we “need others to grow, to learn respect, to overcome our limits, and to celebrate together the victories we achieve.”

Thus, Pope Leo prays that sport “may always be a school of fraternity, not of empty rivalry, a space of encounter, not exclusion, a path of peace, not violence.”

Uniting people and growing closer to Christ

“May those who play, train or cheer,” the Pope said, “discover in sport a universal language that brings cultures together, unites peoples, and sows respect, solidarity, and personal growth.”

He also prays that every sport “become a parable of life lived with you, working with joy and effort, living with humility in defeat and with gratitude in the victory you offer in your Resurrection.”

“May your Spirit,” the Holy Father concluded, “never be lacking in us, making us one team, united with you to build communion and fraternity in history.”

The Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network

 Founded in 1844 as the Apostleship of Prayer, the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network is a Pontifical Work entrusted to the Society of Jesus.

In December 2020, Pope Francis established this Pontifical Work as a Vatican Foundation and approved its final statutes in July 2024.

It is present in over 92 countries, forming a spiritual community of more than 22 million people who seek to live each day with availability to God’s mission.

At the center of its mission are the monthly prayer intentions of the Pope, inviting its members to focus on the pressing challenges facing humanity and the Church’s mission

Martyrs from the 4th century are Tuesday's Saints of the Day

 

Sts. Marcellinus and Peter

Though we know very little about these two martyrs under Diocletian, there is no question that the early church venerated them. Evidence of the respect in which they were held are the basilica Constantine built over their tombs and the presence of their names in the first eucharistic prayer.

Pope St. Damasus says that he heard the story of these two martyrs from their executioner who became a Christian after their deaths. Marcellinus, a priest, and Peter, an exorcist, died in the year 304. According to a legendary account of their martyrdom, the two Romans saw their imprisonment as just one more opportunity to evangelize and managed to convert their jailer and his family. The legend also says that they were beheaded in the forest so that other Christians wouldn't have a chance to bury and venerate their bodies. Two women found the bodies, however, and had them properly buried.

From Anglican Nuns to Catholic Nuns

 

These Catholic nuns were once Anglican sisters!

Matthew Green 

After years of spiritual discernment, a traditional Anglican monastic community made the bold decision to enter full communion with the Catholic Church.

The Sisters of the Blessed Virgin Mary look like any other Catholic nuns. They follow the rule of St. Benedict, they wear black and white habits, and they’re very devoted to the Virgin Mary. A rosary is part of their habit. But these nuns are extraordinary, because they were all previously Anglican nuns, who entered the Catholic Church in 2013! Now, they are the only monastic community in the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham.

Anglican nuns?

The first comment that might come to mind is, “I didn’t even know the Anglicans had nuns!” Indeed, when the Church of England first separated from the Catholic Church in the 16th century, monasticism was practically wiped out in the Church of England. King Henry VIII dissolved the convents and monasteries and seized their properties.

Then came the Oxford Movement within the Anglican Communion in the 19th century. It emphasized and restored aspects of spirituality, theology, and worship that the Church of England has in common with the Catholic Church, such as monasticism. It also gave us St. John Henry Newman, perhaps the most famous convert from Anglicanism to Catholicism in recent centuries.

It was during the resulting revival of Anglican monasticism that William John Butler — a young Anglican vicar in Wantage, England — founded the Anglican Community of St. Mary the Virgin in 1848. Their rule was based on that of St. Augustine.

The community grew over the years and dedicated itself to various good works, from schools to homes for young mothers or the elderly, and for people recovering from addictions. More recently, in the late 20th century, they gradually shifted from institutional work to “more individual ministries” in hospitals, parishes, and schools, as well as spiritual direction.

Feeling called to Roman Catholicism

In a lengthy testimony on the now-Catholic nuns’ website, Mother Winsome SBVM explains why she and a number of her religious sisters decided to move to Catholicism.

Recent photo of five of the Sisters of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Mother Winsome is in the center of the front row.

S.B.V.M.

Mother Winsome explains that the sisters had “reached the point where the community needed to be reformed at a deep spiritual level.” She was elected Mother Superior in 2006 and found that some sisters “were in danger of losing their monastic vocation replacing it with a notion of a loose association of well-meaning women doing good works.” But that, she points out, is not monastic consecrated life.

During the efforts she and other sisters made to reclaim spiritual ground, they ran into obstacles derived from the structure and nature of the Church of England as a whole. They started to feel the need for the guidance of the Vicar of Christ and the Magisterium, instead of an elected synod.

Benedict XVI opens the door

Pope Benedict XVI was well aware that, due in great part to the theological evolution of the Anglican Communion and the Church of England in particular, significant numbers of Anglicans were interested in becoming Catholics.

Recognizing this pastoral need, and the valuable spiritual inheritance they already carried, in 2009 Benedict XVI published Anglicanorum Coetibus. This document provided a solution: the Personal Ordinariates for former Anglicans (which would come into being two years later). These structures allow Anglicans to enter full communion with Rome while bringing with them aspects of their Anglican liturgical and spiritual heritage.

At this point, Mother Winsome says, some of the sisters approached her in private to tell her that they felt called to accept this invitation from Rome. They proposed joining the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. Some specifically cited Cardinal John Henry Newman as an inspiration for taking this step.

Initially, they had no intention of leaving the Community of Saint Mary the Virgin. Many of the sisters had independently expressed feeling the same call, “as part of a community,” while also sensing the call to remain together. And in fact, the Ordinariate was prepared to receive religious in groups. They hoped that the nuns who wanted to become Catholics could do so and remain alongside their Anglican sisters.

This proposal was approved by the whole community, and they began a period of “spiritual exploration” and discernment under the guidance of representatives of the Catholic Church and the Ordinariate in particular. In the end, eleven discerned that they “were being called into the full communion of the Catholic Church.” They also realized they felt called to follow the Rule of Saint Benedict.

Finding a new home

Unsurprisingly, not everyone was happy with their decision. The nuns’ superiors in the Church of England were not supportive. The sisters who wanted to become Catholic would have to find a new physical home and start a new community.

God does not abandon those who entrust themselves to him, and the Catholic Benedictine community of St. Cecilia’s Abbey, Ryde, on the Isle of Wight, opened its doors to them. They had 12 empty rooms they had been preparing for nuns from Paraguay who were supposed to arrive for a year of formation. However, those plans had fallen through.

As it happened, the 11 nuns from the Community of St. Mary the Virgin had been joined by another sister from another community, so there were 12 of them as well. As Mother Winsome observed, “Twelve empty cells, twelve sisters!” It was a providential opportunity, and everyone involved agreed they would take it.

Catholic at last

The twelve nuns were received in the Catholic Church on January 1, 2013. It had taken four years, and they had faced misunderstanding and painful opposition on the part of many of their Anglican brothers and sisters, but it was worth the cost. “It seems to me that each of us was given a very special gift of healing grace, so that we could experience true joy as we were received at last into the full communion of the Catholic Church,” Sister Winsome writes.

In another sign of God’s providence, the ferry they took to reach the abbey on the Isle of Wight turned out to be named “St. Cecilia.”  “Welcome home” were the first words they heard from a sister of St. Cecilia’s abbey.

Eventually, they would become a new Catholic community, the Sisters of the Blessed Virgin Mary. They also found a permanent home of their own at Aston Hall in Aston-by-Stone, Staffordshire. It’s a building with important Catholic ties to two English saints, including St. John Henry Newman. They are the only monastic community in the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. 

“We know that we are now in communion with the See of Peter, with all the saints that we love. When the conclave was electing Pope Francis I, we were not on the outside looking in; they were electing OUR Pope, OUR Holy Father. We are now truly part of the Church,” Mother Winsome says, full of joy.