Rocco Palmo

Email [email protected]

[Rocco Palmo @roccopalmo]

BOB!!!

[Vatican News @VaticanNews]

Currently President and COO of EWTN News, Maria Montserrat Alvarado will succeed Paolo Ruffini in November, continuing the path of reform and renewal initiated by Pope Francis.
https://t.co/GbBSzx8waB

[EWTN News @EWTNews]

Pope Leo XIV has appointed Maria Montserrat Alvarado, President and Chief Operating Officer of EWTN News, as Prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication. The appointment will take effect Nov. 5, 2026.

Since 2023, Alvarado has overseen EWTN News’ global and multilingual news operations across television, radio, print, digital, and social media platforms. During her tenure, she helped expand the network’s international news presence and deepen collaboration across its multilingual platforms.

“Montse’s background in international media, public affairs, and Church engagement has helped shape EWTN’s outreach at a critical moment in the history of our apostolate: the pivot into a deeper engagement with the digital space,” said Michael P. Warsaw, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of EWTN. “Just as importantly, she has remained deeply committed to the mission that defines EWTN: proclaiming the truth of Jesus Christ and the teachings of His Church with clarity, fidelity, and charity.”

Before joining EWTN, Alvarado spent 14 years in leadership roles at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, where she worked extensively on issues related to religious freedom and human dignity.

In a statement released following the appointment, Alvarado said she received the news “with deep gratitude, humility, and trust in the Lord,” adding that the faithful witness of the EWTN family strengthened her faith.

The Dicastery for Communication was established by Pope Francis in 2015 as part of his reform of the Roman Curia, bringing together the Holy See’s various communications entities, including Vatican News, Vatican Radio, L’Osservatore Romano, Vatican Media, the Vatican Publishing house and printing press, Filmoteca Vaticana, and the Holy See Press Office. Appointed for a five year term, the Prefect is responsible for overseeing the entire media network of the Holy See.

Alvarado succeeds Paolo Ruffini, whom Pope Francis appointed in 2018 as the first lay prefect of a dicastery in the Roman Curia. Ruffini said he had come to know Alvarado “over the last couple of years” and will work closely with her in the coming months “in the spirit of communion that unites us in the Church.”

In recent years, Pope Francis entrusted a growing number of leadership roles in the Vatican to lay men and women, including several senior appointments for women religious. Alvarado’s appointment continues that development and marks the first time a woman who has not taken religious vows as a nun or a sister has been appointed to lead a dicastery of the Holy See.

Born in Mexico City, Alvarado earned academic degrees from Florida International University and George Washington University. She has received several national recognitions for her commitment to religious freedom and service to the Church, and her writings and commentary have appeared in a range of international media outlets.

While noting that EWTN would miss Alvarado’s leadership, Warsaw said the network rejoices in her new mission of service to the universal Church.

“We offer her our prayers, our encouragement, and the full support of the EWTN family as she begins this important mission in service to Pope Leo XIV and his pontificate.”

Full story at https://t.co/PMVA8rgVqO

[The National Black Catholic Congress @NBCCongress]

If you missed the Mass of Transferral for Bishop John H. Ricard, SSJ, you can watch the recorded video here: https://t.co/zF0FP6i2y2 TransferralMassBishopJohnRicard

[Vatican News @VaticanNews]

During his address to representatives of the Pontifical Mission Societies, Pope Leo XIV invites the entire Church to participate in World Mission Sunday and recalls longtime PMS director in the United States, Venerable Fulton Sheen, who will be beatified in September, as a "light of faith and hope in the Gospel," noting: "I myself am a witness of his evangelization when I was growing up."
https://t.co/2nr614hqAm

[Amigo de Frodo @bpdflores]

Augustine (Sermo 52) speaking of the Trinity:

non laborandum ut intellegerentur, sed curandum ut commemorarentur

“We don’t have to work at understanding it, only to take care to remind ourselves of it”.

Cited by L Ayers, pg 111

[Vatican News @VaticanNews]

During the Rosary for peace in the Vatican Gardens, Pope Leo XIV reminded everyone present and praying around the world that all people must do their part to achieve peace. It must start with “small but important things, abstaining from every form of verbal or physical violence in daily life and also on social media.”

[Vatican News @VaticanNews]

To close the month of Mary, Pope Leo XIV prays a Rosary for peace at the Grotto of Lourdes in the Vatican Gardens, urging everyone to make the daily commitment to achieve peace, which is “possible when we choose to listen to the cry of those deprived of it.”

https://t.co/emyQS4dE0V

[RNS @RNS]

MADRID (RNS) — The pontiff and the pop star will be in Madrid next week. 'It’s not impossible to think that here will be where Pope Leo and Bad Bunny will cross paths,' said one city official. https://t.co/nmDLq56xrI

[Segreteria di Stato della Santa Sede @TerzaLoggia]

Questo pomeriggio, si è svolta una telefonata tra il Santo Padre e S.E. il Sig. Mark Carney, Primo Ministro del Canada.

[Rocco Palmo @roccopalmo]

Under the umbrella of AI’s moral and human implications, Magnifica Humanitas – Fulltext: https://t.co/39IjaPfCkD – offers sweeping challenges across the whole of the social-teaching landscape…

…among others of note: a word on democracy, and “indifference to the truth.”

[Vatican News @VaticanNews]

Pope Leo XIV says liturgy must preserve certain elements that are divinely instituted, urging Catholic priests and the faithful to respect the texts and norms of published liturgical texts.

https://t.co/qQuKea369c

[Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex]

Let us establish standards for discernment — the dignity of the human person, the universal destination of goods, the preferential option for the poor, care for our common home and peace — and let us translate these standards into practices such as responsible planning, the assessment of human and social impact, the inclusion of the most vulnerable, the promotion of digital literacy and guiding research and industry toward justice and peace.

[Rocco Palmo @roccopalmo]

“Each man and the whole man” – an unusually personal reflection, fulltext of Pope’s address to launch Magnifica Humanitas, as given in English: https://t.co/0lClM6zrqr

[Rocco Palmo @roccopalmo]

At close of Magnifica launch, Leo XIV says, “Like the earlier Leo [in Rerum Novarum], I feel entrusted to look upon another huge transformation with eyes of faith, with lucidity of reason, with openness to mystery and with cries of the poor and the earth resounding in my heart.”

[Rocco Palmo @roccopalmo]

On the release of Pope’s first Encyclical (https://t.co/0lClM6zrqr), +Barron’s Baal-washing shouldn’t be upstaging a Magisterial text….

Then again, such is the world the Big Bob is warning about.

[Menarion @cath_menarion]

Bishop Barron, you're making me laugh at something that Rocco freaking Palmo posted. Come on man

[Rocco Palmo @roccopalmo]

Shorter +Barron: “Zeal for Your Ballroom consumes me.”

[The Daily Beast @thedailybeast]

“What I don’t want from the Church is a kind of demonization of the Trump administration,” the bishop said. https://t.co/zhnGUZp6id

[Rocco Palmo @roccopalmo]

“Each man and the whole man” – an unusually personal reflection, fulltext of Pope’s address to launch Magnifica Humanitas, as given in English: https://t.co/0lClM6zrqr

[Rocco Palmo @roccopalmo]

At close of Magnifica launch, Leo XIV says, “Like the earlier Leo [in Rerum Novarum], I feel entrusted to look upon another huge transformation with eyes of faith, with lucidity of reason, with openness to mystery and with cries of the poor and the earth resounding in my heart.”

[Rocco Palmo @roccopalmo]

NB: Continuing the practice begun by Francis, Magnifica includes a citation of a document by an episcopal conference… and in a sly nod to a Bench of which Prevost was never a member, his lone such pull is from a 1996 USCCB text on young adult ministry:

[Rocco Palmo @roccopalmo]

In statement welcoming Magnifica, USCCB Prez +Coakley says Bench’s Doctrine Committee (chaired by Brooklyn aux/Dunwoodie Rector +Massa) tapped “to lead and coordinate our work regarding Artificial Intelligence.”

…at the Curial level, AI entrusted to Card Czerny’s @VaticanIHD

[Rocco Palmo @roccopalmo]

In statement welcoming Magnifica, USCCB Prez +Coakley says Bench’s Doctrine Committee (chaired by Brooklyn aux/Dunwoodie Rector +Massa) tapped “to lead and coordinate our work regarding Artificial Intelligence.”

…at the Curial level, AI entrusted to Card Czerny’s @VaticanIHD

[U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops @USCCB]

Archbishop Coakley Welcomes Pope Leo XIV’s Encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas
“The Church in the United States welcomes the publication of Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical letter, Magnifica Humanitas, with gratitude and praise. It is a powerful reminder that no technology can replace a child of God, and all technology should be placed at the service of helping humanity thrive.” | Read the full release at: https://t.co/oYCfK9KuFy

@ArchbishopOKC

[Rocco Palmo @roccopalmo]

Extraordinary as the sheer optic was of the Pope leading the launch-event for his maiden Encyclical, the unprecedented nature of the exercise was further underscored by Leo giving his reflection on the text entirely in English.

[Rocco Palmo @roccopalmo]

At close of Magnifica launch, Leo XIV says, “Like the earlier Leo [in Rerum Novarum], I feel entrusted to look upon another huge transformation with eyes of faith, with lucidity of reason, with openness to mystery and with cries of the poor and the earth resounding in my heart.”