Rocco Palmo (born 1973) is a

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

commentator and writer living in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

Education

Palmo was raised in a large

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

Pietro Gasparri Pietro Gasparri (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 Pope ...

. He has a B.A. in political science from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

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

Career

Palmo's

blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...

"Whispers in the Loggia" (2004-2021) was 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 verified 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 ''

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

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

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

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

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

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

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'', ''The

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'' and the ''

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''. He was interviewed by National Public Radio on February 27, 2013, about the

papal conclave A conclave is a gathering of the College of Cardinals convened to appoint the pope of the Catholic Church. Catholics consider the pope to be the apostolic successor of Saint Peter and the earthly head of the Catholic Church. Concerns around ...

to name a successor to retiring Pope

Benedict XVI Pope BenedictXVI (born Joseph Alois Ratzinger; 16 April 1927 – 31 December 2022) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 19 April 2005 until resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, his resignation on 28 Februar ...

. In April 2011 he was named as one of two chairs of the Vatican's first conference on the blogosphere/social media. In March 2012

Archbishop In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdi ...

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 Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

. A post on X by Palmo on April 14, 2025 about deportations during the second presidency of Donald Trump was reposted by Cardinal Robert Provost, and was his most recent post on the platform prior to being named as

Pope Leo XIV Pope Leo XIV (born Robert Francis Prevost, September 14, 1955) has been head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State since May 2025. He is the first pope to have been born in the United States and North America, the fir ...

at the

2025 papal conclave A conclave was held on 7 and 8 May 2025 to elect a new pope to succeed Pope Francis, Francis, who had died on 21 April 2025. Of the 135 eligible Cardinal electors in the 2025 papal conclave, cardinal electors, all but two attended. Cardinal Piet ...

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 21st-century Roman Catholics American Roman Catholic writers American people of Italian descent