Rocco Palmo

Rocco Palmo
Born 1983 (age 32–33)
Residence Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Nationality United States
Education B.A. University of Pennsylvania
Occupation Roman Catholic journalist and blogger
Religion Roman Catholic

Rocco Palmo (born 1983) is a Roman Catholic commentator and writer living in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Education

Palmo was raised in a large Italian family[1] in South Philadelphia.[2] He is a great-nephew of the onetime papal Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Gasparri. He has a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania.[3] He still lives in South Philadelphia.[4]

Career

Palmo's blog "Whispers in the Loggia" is focused primarily on Catholic ecclesiastical happenings in North America. In 2009 he broke the news of the appointments of archbishops to New York, Miami and Los Angeles well before traditional news outlets. Ann Rodgers, religion reporter for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette stated: "A great many of his sources are anonymous archbishops and bishops who know they can talk to him, and feed him stuff and they don't have to worry about their names showing up."[5] Palmo verifies all his reports with three sources before publishing.[6]

Palmo was previously US correspondent for the London-based Catholic weekly The Tablet,[7] and he is a former columnist for the online magazine Busted Halo.[8]

National Public Radio profiled Palmo, stating that his blog: "...has become a must-read for many Catholics — even some inside the Vatican."[9] Archbishop Robert James Carlson of St. Louis is quoted as saying he reads "Whispers in the Loggia" with some regularity.[10] Palmo is frequently cited by major publications including USA Today, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the New York Times.[11][12][13][14][15] He was interviewed by National Public Radio on February 27, 2013 about the papal conclave to name a successor to retiring Pope Benedict XVI.

In April 2011 he was named as one of two chairs of the Vatican’s first conference on the blogosphere/social media.[16] In March 2012 Archbishop Charles Chaput, OFM Cap named Palmo a member of a new Archdiocesan Pastoral Council, the first body of its kind to be established in Philadelphia.

Honors

In 2010 Palmo received an honorary doctorate from the Aquinas Institute of Theology in Saint Louis, Missouri. Rev. Richard Peddicord, president of the Aquinas Institute stated: "Rocco has shown that someone with his background—a Christian commitment, but also his abilities and background in journalism—can use the blogosphere in a very powerful way in terms of communicating the message of the church." Aquinas has never awarded an honorary degree to a journalist, and the only other journalist who has given Aquinas' commencement address was Peter Steinfels of The New York Times in 1993.[5]

References

  1. ↑ Baltimore Sun: "Blogger Rocco Palmo uncovers Vatican secrets — all from his basement in Philly - Catholic writer broke the news that Baltimore's archbishop was leaving for Rome By Mary Carole McCauley September 03, 2011
  2. ↑ Philadelphia Inquirer: "Covering Rome on Philadelphia time" by Julie Shaw July 10, 2012
  3. ↑ National Catholic Reporter: "Catholic bloggers" by Heidi Schlumpf October 1, 2009
  4. ↑ Washington Post: "Blogger Rocco Palmo covers the papal conclave — from South Philly basement" By Michelle Boorstein March 12, 2013
  5. 1 2 St Louis Post Dispatch: "Blogger, 27, Drags Age-Old Church Into 21st Century" By Tim Townsend May 12, 2010
  6. ↑ The Oxford Handbook of Religion and the American News Media edited by Diane Watson retrieved December 28, 2014
  7. ↑ List of Tablet articles
  8. ↑ index of Busted Halo articles
  9. ↑ National Public Radio: "Young Catholic Blogger Makes Waves" by Rachel Martin September 11, 2006
  10. ↑ Archdiocese of St Louis: "Vatican Scoops are Rocco Palmo's Gift, Passion" May 13, 2010
  11. ↑ USA Today: Rocco Palmo
  12. ↑ St Louis Post Dispatch: Rocco Palmo
  13. ↑ National Catholic Reporter: "Q & A: Rocco Palmo" September 30, 2010
  14. ↑ Catholic Herald: Rocco Palmo
  15. ↑ New York Times: Rocco Palmo
  16. ↑ Get Religion: "Whispering with Rocco Palmo" by Sarah Pulliam Bailey October 1, 2009
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