Rocco Palmo (born 1983) is a Catholic commentator and writer living in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
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Rocco Palmo has a BA in Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania.[1]
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."[2]
Palmo was previously US correspondent for the London-based Catholic weekly The Tablet[3] and he is a former columnist for the online magazine Busted Halo.[4]
National Public Radio profiled Palmo, stating that his blog: "...has become a must-read for many Catholics — even some inside the Vatican."[5] Archbishop Robert Carlson of St. Louis is quoted as saying he reads "Whispers in the Loggia" with some regularity.[6] Palmo is frequently cited by major publications including the USA Today and St Louis Post Dispatch.[7][8][9][10]
In April 2011 he was named as one of two chairs of the Vatican’s first conference on the blogosphere/social media.[11]
In 2010 Palmo received an honorary doctorate from the Aquinas Institute of Theology. 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.[2]