Maria Montserrat “Montse” Alvarado, president and chief operating officer of EWTN News, arrived at the University of Mary as the keynote speaker for their March Vocations Jamboree with her luggage in tow. Her flight had been delayed so she came straight from the airport and headed to the stage.
Joining her on stage was Msgr. James Shea, President of the University of Mary to introduce Alvarado, but first to present her with the Lumen Gentium award (Latin for “Light of the Nations”). He explained that she was the first recipient of this honor at the university, “reserved for those whose worthy labors for the Kingdom of God reveal among us the radiance of Christ, the Light of the Nations, as the hope for which we yearn.”
The beautiful gold medallion on a blue ribbon was placed around her neck. “In our midst, Montse speaks and treats even most sensitive issues with irrepressible joy, glory, and faith,” Msgr. Shea continued. “You make us proud to be men and women of the Gospel. You shine forth the Lumen Gentium as you speak to the issues of our time. We are honored that you would come to our campus.”
Thanking Msgr. Shea, Alvarado explained, “It’s not hard when you believe in a God that would suffer in the way our Lord suffered. How can you not be grateful and be horrified at any lack of gratitude you’ve had in your heart.”
Alvarado added that it was actually the second time she had been on the university campus. Prior to EWTN, Alvarado served as executive director and chief operating officer at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty—a public interest group that defends religious freedom at the U.S. Supreme Court and elsewhere. She had helped to defend the University of Mary and several other Catholic groups in a six-year fight for religious freedom against the Obamacare “transgender rule” that goes against Catholic teaching.
Empowerment of obedience
Speaking to a crowd of around 300, Alvarado talked about finding God in our lives and manifesting that in the world through our vocations.
“What does it look like?” she asked. “One word: obedience.” Alvarado acknowledged that the word “obedience” often has a negative connotation in our world but said that being obedient to God was incredibly empowering.
“Think of our Lady and her story,” she said. “I am obedient to her when she said, ‘Do what my Son asks of you’. There is power in that. Obedience is desiring the things God asks you to do. I desire it because it is good and I’m going to find joy in that. That’s very hard to do but it’s the recipe for heaven and the recipe for vocation.”
Alvarado shared the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe and the important role Juan Diego played. She noted that although the Spanish and the Church of the time held native Mexicans as inferior, “Our Lady said it was an honor to be his mother.”
“Our Lady of Guadalupe was pregnant with our Lord,” Alvarado explained. “You are looking at Christ and she is just the vessel.” She told of roses growing on Tepeyac Hill in December being brought to the bishop as proof of the apparition to convince him to heed Our Lady’s request to build a shrine and then the image of Our Lady being imprinted on the tilma. “Juan Diego was canonized just 21 years ago, so an Aztec Indian taught us how being in relationship with Christ can change everything.”
She pointed to the many examples of men and women religious in attendance as witnesses living with the love of Jesus, wanting to share that and bring others into a life of faith.
“Walking with our Lord and doing the corporal works of mercy and service and being obedient is not something for your resume, but it’s about encountering a person,” Alvarado said.
Generations of grace
In an interview following the talk, Alvarado shared that she believes that the work she does now and her time with the Becket Fund is a sharing in the grace from her ancestors who prayed the rosary. “We often think about the generational wounds in our families, but we don’t usually think about the generational graces,” she said.
“My great grandparents suffered persecution during the Cristero Wars in Mexico,” Alvarado explained. “Their prayers for religious freedom manifested in a vocation that I never would have chosen for myself. I loved the constitution and I fell in love with the American freedom movement, but I never thought that religious freedom was the thing that would really call my heart.”
While in Washington D.C. working on a graduate degree, Alvarado’s father suggested she volunteer with Becket. “I walked into the office and the first thing that I saw was an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe,” she recalled. “The man who founded Becket is incredibly Marion and has a deep devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe, so I immediately felt at home. I went from learning everything as an intern to becoming executive director leading a team of incredible people and winning 14 cases at the Supreme Court. Who would have guessed this would happen for an immigrant from Mexico who didn’t speak English when she moved here at nine years old?”
Alvarado learned that her great grandparents had to marry in the Church in secret and baptized their children in secret due to the religious persecution by the Mexican government over which the Cristero Wars were fought. “There are the generational gifts of their prayers; their crying out to God to be able to worship freely. That manifested in a calling for me that I never would have chosen for myself. I was interested in politics. I never thought I would be defending religious liberty at the Supreme Court, some of the most contentious fights against the government. Now at EWTN, I am talking to people about the faith, knowing that I come from a family who could not talk about the faith. This would be an answer to my grandparents’ prayer that we would be a people of Christ.”
Alvarado shared that she continues her family’s tradition of praying the rosary. “The rosary is an incredibly powerful tool that I would call a weapon in this culture,” she said. “I never knew, coming into EWTN, how much I was going to have to double down on prayer. Because when you are reporting on the news, you are seeing the devil every day and have to be prepared for that. You see the worst of humanity and also the best of humanity in all the good stories that reflect Christ.”