{"id":126918,"date":"2026-06-03T10:35:49","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T05:35:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?p=126918"},"modified":"2026-06-03T10:35:50","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T05:35:50","slug":"pope-names-first-lay-woman-to-head-vatican-department","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/126918\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope names first lay woman to head Vatican department"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">VATICAN CITY(National Times)- Pope Leo XIV on Tuesday named a Mexico-born news executive to head up the Vatican\u2019s powerful communications department \u2014 the first lay woman to hold a post in the Roman Curia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Maria Montserrat Alvarado, currently president of the Catholic media outlet&nbsp;<em>EWTN News<\/em>, will take up her post on Nov 1, the Vatican said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She was born in Mexico City and studied in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Vatican News said the appointment was \u201ccontinuing the path of reform and renewal initiated by Pope Francis\u201d, Leo\u2019s predecessor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAlvarado is the first non-religious woman to be appointed prefect of a dicastery of the Holy See,\u201d the Vatican news service report said. The Dicastery for Communication oversees the Vatican\u2019s vast print, radio and television services, which broadcast to a global audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It also runs the Vatican press office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the months before he died on April 21 last year, Pope Francis named two nuns to key Vatican positions and criticised a \u201cchauvinistic mentality\u201d within the Catholic Church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sister Raffaella Petrini became president of the governorate of the Vatican City state and Sister Simona Brambilla was named head of the Vatican department overseeing the world\u2019s Catholic religious orders and congregations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>VATICAN CITY(National Times)- Pope Leo XIV on Tuesday named a Mexico-born news executive to head up the Vatican\u2019s powerful communications department \u2014 the first lay woman to hold a post in the Roman Curia. Maria Montserrat Alvarado, currently president of the Catholic media outlet&nbsp;EWTN News, will take up her post on Nov 1, the Vatican [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":126919,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Pope names first lay woman to head Vatican department - Nation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/126918\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pope names first lay woman to head Vatican department - Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"VATICAN CITY(National Times)- Pope Leo XIV on Tuesday named a Mexico-born news executive to head up the Vatican\u2019s powerful communications department \u2014 the first lay woman to hold a post in the Roman Curia. Maria Montserrat Alvarado, currently president of the Catholic media outlet&nbsp;EWTN News, will take up her post on Nov 1, the Vatican [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/126918\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-03T05:35:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-06-03T05:35:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Untitled-design-8-3.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"670\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"370\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"humza Jahangir\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"humza Jahangir\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/126918\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/126918\/\",\"name\":\"Pope names first lay woman to head Vatican department - Nation\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/126918\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/126918\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Untitled-design-8-3.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-03T05:35:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-06-03T05:35:50+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/27efa35fa76e99f3ad7e7397d7332c16\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/126918\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/126918\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/126918\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Untitled-design-8-3.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Untitled-design-8-3.png\",\"width\":670,\"height\":370},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/126918\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Pope names first lay woman to head Vatican department\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/\",\"name\":\"Nation\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/27efa35fa76e99f3ad7e7397d7332c16\",\"name\":\"humza Jahangir\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43feedd99bd6a90080d1621b7e6604364acb673ee979d3ffe5075557c14c68b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43feedd99bd6a90080d1621b7e6604364acb673ee979d3ffe5075557c14c68b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"humza Jahangir\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/author\/humza\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Pope names first lay woman to head Vatican department - Nation","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/126918\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Pope names first lay woman to head Vatican department - Nation","og_description":"VATICAN CITY(National Times)- Pope Leo XIV on Tuesday named a Mexico-born news executive to head up the Vatican\u2019s powerful communications department \u2014 the first lay woman to hold a post in the Roman Curia. 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