If you’re going to the National Eucharistic Congress, you will see as one of the emcees EWTN News President and COO Montse Alvarado. She joins fellow emcees Sister Miriam James Heidland of the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity (SOLT) who leads healing retreats for priests and religious sisters and hosts the podcast Abiding Together, and Father Josh Johnson, the vocations director for the Diocese of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, as well as pastor of Sacred Heart of Jesus Church and School who is well known for his podcast Ask Father Josh. 

Alvarado attributes the generational graces from her own family with her calling to defend religious freedom in her past work with Becket, a legal and educational institute defending religious liberty for all religions, and with becoming head of EWTN News and founding host of EWTN News In Depth.

Such focus on freedom fell into place providentially, the Mexico City-born Alvarado told the Register recently, following a talk she gave at the University of Mary in Bismarck, North Dakota, coinciding with her reception of the university’s inaugural Lumen Gentium (“Light of the Nations”) Medal.

“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 War in Mexico,” she explained to the Register. “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 Marian 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 9 years old?” 

During college, while studying politics, Alvarado learned about the Cristero War, the 1926-1929 struggle between the Mexican government and the Church for religious freedom. She learned from her father about the persecution their relatives lived through. Alvarado visited a cemetery last December where her great-great-grandmother is buried, five hours from Mexico City. There is an image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus on her tombstone. 

Alvarado also learned that her great-grandparents had to marry in the Church in secret and baptized their children in secret. “This was a generational reality for my family,” she told the Register. “My ancestors prayed for religious freedom. 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. If you think about who my adversary was and who my great-great-grandmother’s adversary was, it’s the government.”

Alvarado considers her current position also as an answer to her ancestors’ prayers. “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,” she said. “This would be an answer to my grandparents’ prayer that we would be a people of Christ. I think of my great-grandmother and my great-great-grandmother, who were formed in faith and taught the Rosary to my grandmother, who is still alive on my mother’s side. She survived horrible tragedies, praying the Rosary.”

It is a devotion Alvarado continues. “The Rosary is an incredibly powerful tool that I would call a weapon in this culture,” she said. 

As she told the Register, “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.” 

A Milestone Moment

Who: All Catholics

What: National Eucharistic Congress

When: July 17-21

Where: Indiana Convention Center and Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis

Why: Adore and celebrate Christ with an expected 50,000 fellow Catholics

How to Register:

EucharisticCongress.org/register

(Editor’s Note: Receive a discounted rate via: EucharisticCongress.org/EWTN)