PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Daily News
Julie Shaw
Philadelphia Daily News
Chillin’ Wit’ . . .” is a regular feature of the Daily News spotlighting a name in the news away from the job.
Rocco Palmo is only 29. The born-and-bred South Philly guy, thin at 5 feet 11 inches, is the go-to person for reporters and followers of the Catholic Church. The New York Times quoted him last month after the verdicts in the landmark Philadelphia church sex-abuse trial. So did the Washington Post. And CNN.
On Sunday afternoon, we’re sitting outside the Grindcore House coffee shop at 4th and Greenwich streets in South Philly. It’s vegan. He’s not. He’s drinking black coffee in a cappuccino-sized mug and a glass of ice water. He puffs away at his Djarum brand cigarettes.
He’s talkative. (He gets it from his mom.) Without prompting, encyclopedic knowledge about the Vatican and the Philadelphia Archdiocese flows out of him.
Palmo, Italian and Catholic, went to Masterman for middle and high schools, then studied political science at the University of Pennsylvania, graduating in 2004. Later that year, he started his blog, Whispers in the Loggia, now read worldwide.
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