Pope Leo XIV has appointed Maria Alvarado,a 39-year-old US media executive as the Dicastey for Communication making her first woman to head a Vatican ministry.
Maria will be overseeing the Vatican’s television, radio, print and press operations.
Her appointment was announced in June but she officially resumed office on October 31, 2026.
Alvarado who has previously served as the president and COO of EWTN News said she did not apply for the role and described the appointment as one from “the Holy Father”.
She succeeds Paolo Ruffini , the first layman to head a Vatican dicastery, serving from 2018 to October 31, 2026.
Maria is also the first non-Italian laywoman to hold the position.
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👉 JOIN GISTSMATE WHATSAPP CHANNELIn another development, GISTSMATE MEDIA reported that Pope Leo XIV submitted a mail-in ballot for the US midterms, becoming the first pope to vote in a US election and likely the first to vote in a secular democratic election.
The first American pope “has submitted his mail-in ballot in Chicago,” the Vatican said in a statement Friday. “The Holy Father expresses his belief in the right and the duty of citizens to participate in democratic processes,” the statement said.
Michael Walsh, a British historian and author who has written several books on the papacy, said Leo XIV would be the first pope to vote in a democratic, secular election.
“I don’t think popes have ever voted in a democratic election before,” he told CNN.
Records show that the pope, who remains a US citizen, is registered as a voter in the Chicago suburb of New Lenox where his brother, John, lives.
The Chicago-born pontiff has cast ballots in both Republican and Democratic primaries in recent years and cast a vote in the 2024 presidential election.
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