Seriously, we are doing something wrong.
Matt and I are like the Rodney Dangerfield’s of Catholic blogging. Nobody is offering us honorary degrees. This all just goes to prove my theory that the value of ‘stupid’ is misundervalued in our society. Or something.
But Rocco, Rocco gets his props.
Rocco Palmo’s life has been infused with four major blessings — his large Italian family, journalism, baseball and the Roman Catholic church.
All four will coalesce Friday as the 27-year-old blogger, who lives in and works from his parents’ home in Philadelphia, receives an honorary doctorate from the Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis. His parents will be there as Palmo gives the commencement address to the seminary’s 77 graduates. He’ll also watch his beloved Phillies take on the Cardinals this week.
“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,” said the Rev. Richard Peddicord, president of the Aquinas Institute.
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.
In awarding Palmo an honorary doctorate, the 84-year-old Dominican seminary is making a statement about the changing relationship between journalism and the Catholic church. The award for Palmo’s work on his blog Whispers in the Loggia is also an expression of how American Catholic leaders hope to encourage a younger generation to engage their faith through news.
Congrats to Rocco. But seriously, what Rocco got that we don’t got? Besides all the sources and connections and friends. Besides all that stuff, what huh?
But we got something that Rocco doesn’t have and when I think of it I will be sure to let you know.
May 6, 2010 at 6:34 pm
I will tell her immediately that her soul is in peril because of the Phillies.
Heheheheh. Doing so may put your health in peril, and I would never want to contribute to that!
(I'm actually not kidding. I once went to a game at the Vet, incognito. My buddy warned me that I WOULD be assaulted if I wore even a hint of orange and blue, or smiled in any way at the misfortunes of the home nine. They built a jail in the basement of that dump for a reason.)
May 6, 2010 at 7:13 pm
Rocco's a Phillies fan? Hey, he does kind of look like the young man who was Tazered on the field earlier this week.
May 6, 2010 at 7:29 pm
what Rocco got that we don't got?
Liberal sources in strategic ecclesiastical positions, whose sentiments he showcases on his blog and in a lapsed-Catholic English magazine, in exchange for gossip, an early heads-up, and the occasional leak. I read him regularly, because — face it — his faction is more numerous and better connected.
Rocco's talented and hard-working, but it would be all for nothing if not for the liberal sympathies he shares with chancery critters. One hand washes the other.
Romulus
May 6, 2010 at 9:52 pm
Let's see – maybe,you have a cleaner mouth than Rocco. I remember a few years ago saying something to him about his language. I just got an e-mail reply telling me that he "was not for the faint of heart". A few days latter he posted something at the end of which he expressed his disapproval by writing "B***. F*****g. S***. Not a class act, but probably an act of some kind. I do however think it is so cool the way he refers to the Archbishop of New York as "Tim". Despite his adolescent vocab., I very much admire his irreverence and love to check in on Rocco about every 8 months for another refreshing dose.
Steve
May 7, 2010 at 2:45 am
There are a lot of haters in this combox. Somehow I expected more from Matt and Pat's readers.
Yes, Rocco is brash. Add that to his opinions and you have a perfect portrait of MANY MANY Catholics his age.
And I would like the haters here to take a good, hard look at yourself at 23 and see if maybe you don't see more of yourself in Rocco than not. Like all of us, he's growing and maturing. And I seriously doubt that there is one person here who didn't say, do, or believe some pretty dumb things when we were in our early 20's.
Where he is now may be light years away from where he was at 23. And where he is now is light years away from where he will be at 33. Cut him some slack.
Congrats, Rocco.
May 7, 2010 at 2:50 am
Amy: There's a lot of this sort of misunderstanding going around. Let me make it plain for you. Disagreeing with someone is not the same thing as hating them. Receiving an honorary doctorate for what amounts to reporting in the manner of supermarket tabloids — whatever maturity he has gained recently, such has been his stock and trade for the bulk of his tenure in the blogosphere — deserves to be given pause.
I don't hate Rocco Palmo. I take exception to what he does, especially how he does it. I don't care how famous it makes him.
May 7, 2010 at 2:51 am
Once again, that's …
"Disagreeing with someone is not the same thing as hating them."
There. That oughta do it.
May 7, 2010 at 3:12 am
David,
First: I meant "haters" in the colloquial (as in some who might perhaps be jealous of his readership, press, or whatever), not literal. I don't think anyone here truly HATES anyone. God bless you and please be assured that I did not mean to cast aspersions on anyone's character. I apologize for the misunderstanding.
Second, I did not say that Rocco deserves the award he's being given. It just seems that some commentors here are dragging a lot of stuff out of Rocco's archives that maybe, given the passage of time, he might regret saying now. I find it interesting that he didn't even mention the award on his blog.
This is the thing: Can't we just be happy for this kid? And if we disagree with him, can't we take it up with him directly, and not trash him in a combox? Or, if someone didn't want to do that (or it was fruitless), simply pray for him and his change of heart on things we disagree on?
May 7, 2010 at 3:22 am
Rocco is only 27? I thought he was older because he's been around for awhile. Wow. Isn't Palmo more of a news aggregator and less a blog?
May 7, 2010 at 8:37 am
So this is why Rocco referred to these as strange days. Something like this would get plugged endlessly by some of the guys out there with books to sell at some of my other bookmarked sites, but he never mentioned it.
Congratulations, Rocco. Getting it "Piled higher and Deeper" is not as good as hearing "Well done good and faithful servant," but I expect you will get one of those as well.
To respond to some of the snark:
Obviously Rocco has matured considerably over the last 5 years.
Who else gets as many predictions right? Please post a link. I need to read whoever that is.
If you think that he is the toy of sources with a liberal bent keep in mind that the hierarch most responsible for where he is now is Bevelacqua, he affectionately refers to Rigali as Pharaoh and counts Chaput as more friend than source. There is no mention of any relationship with Mahoney, Weakland or Brown.
As to his responses to email, I have gotten responses on 2 out of 3 items and at least one of those was before I started giving him a pittance to help pay his cell phones bills and such (and I have neither site nor insight that could be of any use to him).
His success does no one here any harm so this seems cause for some joy from his brothers and sisters in Christ.
May 7, 2010 at 8:56 am
Oh, and as for the Phils, need you be reminded that they play for an archbishop who is both a cardinal and a successor of a saint while the Mets play for one who is neither. So there. Some teams can match one of those but none will match both during our lifetimes. That makes being a Phillies fan holier than being anybody elses fan.
May 7, 2010 at 9:06 am
As Fr. Erik Richtsteig said "Aquinas Institute in St. Louis, not good." Same Aquinas Institute that used to be in DBQ but left. Same AI that is anything but orthodox. My paisan must be a bit pazzo for accepting an award from them.
May 7, 2010 at 2:42 pm
Ami,
I can assure you I don't hate Rocco or anyone in this whole world. I think that a 27 year old might be expected to be a bit more mature in his language and tone. Steve
May 7, 2010 at 2:42 pm
I tried reading his blog a couple of times. It was distasteful.
May 7, 2010 at 3:35 pm
For a long time, Palmo's primary advantage was that he understands Italian and he could translate the Vatican Bolletino before anyone else got out of bed and he could translate the Italian media's Church gossipmongers, the latter upon which he still heavily relies.
Let's look at some recent example of big church news.
1) Gomez to LA – The night before, Rocco "breaks" the news, admitting, however, that Kevin Knight at New Advent also had the news – and since he mentions Knight in his post…that means Knight had it "first." (As if anyone cares.)
2) Pell to the Congregation of Bishops – an open secret. John Allen wrote about it in February.
http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/australias-pell-tops-chart-rumor-magnet
In his most recent post on Pell, Palmo does nothing more than quote from the Italian press.
3) Finally, bishops' meetings. Palmo always makes a big deal about going to these, and I always look at his posts thinking that this vaunted inside track is going to come up with something interesting – backstage conversations/encounters or something, but it never happens. Last November, Rocco attended, and his posts consisted of liveblogging the open session, something anyone with a computer or anyone in the press area could have done.
http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2009_11_01_archive.html
Again, compare Palmo's blog with the work of John Allen, whose columns are rich with one-on-one conversations with bishops and so on. Nothing of the sort from Palmo.
Palmo is a good writer, and there is no doubt about it. He's graceful and can write a good synthesis. But.
Palmo has created quite the persona for himself, but when you actually read his blog, it's not much more than a collection of citations from other places, quotes from other news reports or speeches, and occasional pleas for $$. He's also rather ungracious in that he has no blogroll at all – no links list. Considering how his "fame" as it were has been built by other bloggers linking to him, it is ungracious that he has no links to others at all.
May 7, 2010 at 3:42 pm
"He's graceful and can write a good synthesis. But … it is ungracious that he has no links to others at all."
So, he's graceful, except when he's not. Otherwise, the best critique I've read in this combox so far.
May 7, 2010 at 3:48 pm
Amy, thou hast writ:
"Can't we just be happy for this kid? And if we disagree with him, can't we take it up with him directly, and not trash him in a combox?"
Well, to the first point, not necessarily. He's receiving an honorary doctorate for being a gossip-monger. I would never be proud of such a distinction, therefore I am hard-pressed to extend that sentiment to others. As to taking it to him directly, consider that the photo we see at this post is probably the first for the general public. Further, his so-described "persona" includes making himself virtually inaccessible.
Finally, I'm curious as to how you can be sure that no one is praying for him.
May 7, 2010 at 4:36 pm
That picture! NOW I know who is really is. He's Dr. Victor Doom from the Fantastic 4 movie!
Can't you just see him going, "Mmmmmwwwaaahaaahaahaaa!"
(LET'S GO METS!)
May 8, 2010 at 6:03 pm
Are you sure this is not some sort of hoax? Does the Aquinas Institute ever want to be taken seriously? Their academic reputation was never very high, but this seems to doom them to laughable status. Who will get next year's honorary doctorate, Mylie Cyrus?
May 10, 2010 at 7:11 pm
Unable to tell: What motivated this post?
Collegial Kudos?
Competitive Contempt?
Dangerfield's genius was to have people laughing at him at the end of every joke.
I am not laughing… I am wondering…