President of EWTN News honored for her commitment to religious freedom

Editorial staff – Friday, September 6, 2024, 11:30 a.m.

EWTN News President and Chief Operating Officer (COO) Montse Alvarado was honored Tuesday by a major religious advocacy group for her “consistent, effective and innovative leadership in advancing religious freedom.”

The Religious Freedom Institute (RFI), a Washington-based nonprofit and nonpartisan organization that promotes religious freedom for all people around the world, announced on September 3 that Alvarado will receive the 2024 Religious Freedom Impact Award.

Alvarado, who is originally from Mexico City, was previously executive director and COO of the Becket Fund, a nonprofit advocacy group that defends religious freedom before the U.S. Supreme Court, among others.

In March 2023, she took over the leadership of EWTN News, which also includes CNA Deutsch and other major Catholic news media in many parts of the world.

Before assuming the role of president and COO, Alvarado was the anchor of the weekly television program “EWTN News In Depth.” She recently passed the anchor role to Catherine Hadro.

Alvarado told CNA, CNA Deutsch's English-language partner agency, that she “never intended for religious freedom to be such a big part of my career.” Working to defend the rights of religious people of all backgrounds has deepened her own Catholic faith.

“It just shows that God always knows best and enables you to do what you are called to do.” “Trust him,” she said.

In addition to her work at EWTN News, Alvarado currently serves on the boards of numerous Catholic nonprofits and apostolates, including the Catholic Information Center, the Acton Institute, the Knights of Columbus Charitable Giving Fund, Benedictine College, and the Patients' Rights Action Fund, a leading organization opposing the legalization of assisted suicide.

She also serves on the Advisory Board of the Council of Major Superiors of Religious Women (CMSWR) and the GIVEN Institute and advises the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops through the Committee on Religious Liberty.

“Throughout her career, Montse Alvarado has been a strong, clear voice for religious freedom in the media, culture and the courts,” RFI President David Trimble said this week. “She has tirelessly dedicated her time and talents to protecting the rights not only of her fellow Catholics, but of all people of faith in America.”

Reflecting on her work in the area of ​​religious freedom, Alvarado said that while legal protections for religious freedom in the United States have improved in recent decades, the “culture” has changed so much that many people today do not understand or value the importance of religion.

“The lack of religious education is the greatest threat to religious freedom, which is expressed in attacks on churches and rampant anti-Semitism around the world.” “People do not understand the religious impulse, and we fear and persecute what we do not know,” she said.

Alvarado said her legal work with Becket in defense of religious freedom was “an exercise in humility and prudence and a great test of self-reliance” and reminded her of the importance of the power of prayer as a sustaining factor in difficult work.

“Defending religious freedom has made me more religious, not less.” “Encountering the deep faith of other traditions – no matter what kind – has changed my heart forever,” Alvarado said.

EWTN News covers a wide range of religious freedom-related issues under Alvarado's leadership. Alvarado encouraged Catholics to support religious freedom for all people, in part because “the search for God must be free from coercion.”

“The Christ offers Jesus Christ as an answer, knowing that only the Holy Spirit will move the heart of the other in His time,” she said.

Translated and edited from the original by Catholic News Agency (CNA), the English-language partner agency of CNA German.