Rocco Palmo (born 1973) is a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

commentator and writer living in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

Education

Palmo was raised in a large

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

family in South Philadelphia. He is a great-nephew of the onetime papal Secretary of State Cardinal

Pietro Gasparri Pietro Gasparri, GCTE (5 May 1852 – 18 November 1934) was a Roman Catholic cardinal, diplomat and politician in the Roman Curia and the signatory of the Lateran Pacts. He served also as Cardinal Secretary of State under Popes Benedict XV and ...

. He has a B.A. in Political Science from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

.National Catholic Reporter: "Catholic bloggers" by Heidi Schlumpf
October 1, 2009 He still lives in South Philadelphia.

Career

Palmo's

blog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order s ...

"Whispers in the Loggia" is focused primarily on Catholic ecclesiastical happenings in North America.St Louis Post Dispatch: "Blogger, 27, Drags Age-Old Church Into 21st Century" By Tim Townsend
May 12, 2010 Palmo verifies all his reports with three sources before publishing.The Oxford Handbook of Religion and the American News Media edited by Diane Watson
retrieved December 28, 2014 Palmo was previously US correspondent for the London-based Catholic weekly ''

The Tablet ''The Tablet'' is a Catholic international weekly review published in London. Brendan Walsh, previously literary editor and then acting editor, was appointed editor in July 2017. History ''The Tablet'' was launched in 1840 by a Quaker convert ...

'', and he is a former columnist for the online magazine Busted Halo.

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

profiled Palmo, stating that his blog: "...has become a must-read for many Catholics — even some inside the Vatican." Archbishop

Robert James Carlson Robert James Carlson (born June 30, 1944) is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as the ninth archbishop of the Archdiocese of St. Louis in Missouri from 2009 to 2020. Carlson previously served as an auxiliary bishop ...

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

is quoted as saying he reads "Whispers in the Loggia" with some regularity. Palmo is frequently cited by major publications including ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgi ...

'', ''The

St. Louis Post-Dispatch The ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' is a major regional newspaper based in St. Louis, Missouri, serving the St. Louis metropolitan area. It is the largest daily newspaper in the metropolitan area by circulation, surpassing the ''Belleville News-De ...

'' and the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''. He was interviewed by National Public Radio on February 27, 2013, about the papal conclave to name a successor to retiring Pope

Benedict XVI Pope Benedict XVI ( la, Benedictus XVI; it, Benedetto XVI; german: link=no, Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, , on 16 April 1927) is a retired prelate of the Catholic church who served as the head of the Church and the soverei ...

. In April 2011 he was named as one of two chairs of the Vatican’s first conference on the blogosphere/social media.Get Religion: "Whispering with Rocco Palmo" by Sarah Pulliam Bailey
October 1, 2009 In March 2012 Archbishop

Charles Chaput Charles Joseph Chaput ( ; born September 26, 1944) is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He was the ninth archbishop of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania, serving from 2011 until 2020. He previously served as arch ...

, OFM Cap named Palmo a member of a new Archdiocesan Pastoral Council, the first body of its kind to be established in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

References

External links

Whispers in the Loggia Blog

Interview and article on Palmo by Bill McGarvey

Interview with Palmo by Father Robert Reed
of

CatholicTV The CatholicTV Network, commonly known as CatholicTV, is a Catholic television network based in Watertown, Massachusetts. CatholicTV first launched locally in Boston in 1955, making it the oldest Catholic television network in the United States ...

GetReligion: "Whispering with Rocco Palmo" September 26, 2011
{{DEFAULTSORT:Palmo, Rocco Living people 1983 births Roman Catholic writers American people of Italian descent