Montse Alvarado becomes the first woman and first layperson to lead Vatican communications on November 1, 2026. What her appointment signals about Pope Leo XIV's media reform, and the apparatus she inherits.
A 25-year case study in institutional crisis communications: how the Vatican handled — and mishandled — the global clergy sexual abuse crisis from Boston 2002 through Pope Francis.
Pope Francis served as the 266th Bishop of Rome from March 2013 until his death in April 2025. He was the first Pope from the Americas, the first Jesuit Pope, the first non-European Pope in a thousand years — and the first Pope to reset Vatican communications for the digital era.
