Benedictine College board member tapped to lead Vatican communications

Atchison’s connection to the Vatican just got a lot more visible. Pope Leo XIV appointed Maria Montserrat Alvarado, a Benedictine College board member and the president and chief operating officer of EWTN News, to lead the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication, a post that will put a campus-connected leader in charge of how the Church speaks to the world.

The Vatican said June 2 that Alvarado will take office Nov. 1. Vatican News described her as a laywoman born in Mexico City, and said she earned degrees from Florida International University and George Washington University. The dicastery itself was created in 2015 as part of Vatican communications reform, then renamed in 2018 by Pope Francis. Paolo Ruffini was appointed prefect that same year, making Alvarado’s appointment part of a relatively new communications structure that has become central to the Holy See’s media strategy.

Her selection carries added weight because Pope Francis’ 2022 apostolic constitution, Praedicate Evangelium, opened the door for laypeople, including women, to serve as dicastery prefects. Catholic media has described Alvarado as the first laywoman to lead the Vatican’s communications department, a first that marks another step in the Church’s effort to broaden who holds top leadership roles in Rome.

For Benedictine College, the appointment underscores how far the school’s board reaches beyond Atchison. Alvarado has served on Benedictine’s Board of Directors since 2020, while also overseeing EWTN News’ global and multilingual operations since 2023. Before joining EWTN, she spent 14 years in leadership roles at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, work that placed her at the center of religious liberty and public-policy debates long before this Vatican appointment.

Her profile has also remained visible in Catholic public life through campus speaking engagements and appearances alongside Benedictine voices at major gatherings such as the March for Life, the National Eucharistic Congress and SEEK. At Benedictine, school president Stephen D. Minnis said the college is proud of her, a reflection of how the appointment connects a local board member to one of the most important communications jobs in the global Catholic Church. EWTN Chairman and CEO Michael P. Warsaw said Alvarado brings “new energy and perspective” to the network’s global news services, a description that now extends to her new role in Vatican City.