Pope Leo has appointed the first lay woman to a top position in the governance of the Roman Catholic church.

Maria Montserrat Alvarado, who is now president of the US-based Catholic media outlet, EWTN News, will lead the Vatican’s powerful communications department, which was set up by the late Pope Francis in 2015 and oversees the Vatican’s news site as well as its radio station, newspaper, press office, publishing house and film library.

Alvarado, who was born in Mexico City and has been a US citizen since 2008, begins the role on 1 November, replacing Paolo Ruffini, who is retiring, the Vatican said in a statement.

While nuns and lay women have held influential roles within the Roman curia, she is “the first nonreligious woman to be appointed prefect of a dicastery of the Holy See”, according to Vatican News.

In a statement, Alvarado said that while the appointment was “unexpected” she received it “with a sincere desire to serve the Holy Father as he begins his pontificate”.

She added: “I am grateful to Paolo Ruffini for his leadership throughout the last years and look forward to continuing, in friendship and hope, the important work of strengthening the dicastery so it may continue to serve the church in Rome and everywhere to communicate Christ to the world.”

Alvarado’s appointment is a sign that Leo, the first US-born pontiff elected in May last year, is continuing along the path initiated by Francis, who during his 12-year papacy made strides in boosting the female workforce in the Vatican while appointing several lay women into the top echelons of its governance.

In the months before he died, Francis named two nuns – Raffaella Petrini and Simona Brambilla – in top positions while criticising the “chauvinistic mentality” within the Catholic church.

Francis also modernised the Vatican’s communication while making its messaging style less formal and more accessible. Leo has indicated that he too wants to make changes, summoning cardinals to the Vatican in late June for a meeting to “reassess the effectiveness of ecclesial communication, including at the level of the Holy See, from a more explicitly missionary perspective”.

“Even when the church finds herself in a minority, she is called to live with confident courage, as a small flock bringing hope to all, mindful that the aim of mission is not its own survival, but the communication of the love with which God loves the world,” Leo wrote in a letter to his cardinals announcing the meeting.

Alvarado joined EWTN as a news anchor and has been president and chief operating officer since 2023. Francis criticised the network on more than one occasion, in response to some of its programming criticising elements of his papacy.