ROME (AP) — Pope Leo XIV took a step Tuesday toward overhauling the Vatican’s communications operations by naming the Mexican-American president of the Catholic U.S. media conglomerate EWTN News as its new head.

Maria Montserrat Alvarado replaces Paolo Ruffini as prefect of the Dicastery of Communications, the office that controls the Vatican’s television, radio, online, publishing and newspaper operations. It enjoys one of the biggest budgets of any Vatican department.

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.

Alvarado is currently president and chief operating officer of EWTN News, which says it is the largest Catholic media organization in the world. Its Washington, D.C.,-based operations include television, radio, online and publishing operations in seven languages. The EWTN family, which generally skews conservative, includes the Catholic News Agency, National Catholic Register and ACI Group news agencies, among other branches.

Born in Mexico City, Alvarado joined EWTN as a news anchor after holding leadership positions in the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which has waged church-state legal battles in the U.S. to protect religious freedom.

During Pope Francis’ pontificate, EWTN’s programming often featured English-speaking critics of the Argentine pope. In 2021, Francis blasted such media criticism as “the work of the devil” in comments widely interpreted as being directed at EWTN.

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