Rocco's Viewpoint

It came as a revelation to me that Rocco Palmo, who writes for 'The Tablet' and who blogs the informative and delightful Whispers in the Loggia is only twenty-three years old. And he has some very interesting view points, which are well worth reading. Do check out The Rocco Report and The Gospel according to Rocco. Here are a few quotations I felt was quite thoughtful and insightful:

About the witness of the Church:

"The church is supposed to be there for those who have no one to speak for them, no one to fight for them, who have nothing else to get them through. This isn’t simply some social justice thing, but what Christ tells us, that “I have come that they might have life and have it abundantly.” Not just Catholics, not just Christians, but everybody. That the world may have light. The salt of the earth and the light of the world – not the salt of the church and the light of the church. It’s supposed to change the world, starting with the people closest to the flame. And the Pope just said this. That there’s all this self-absorption going on and people are complaining, “People aren’t listening, people aren’t listening.” Well no one’s listening because we’re not giving them an incentive to."

About the current Pope and the distressing polarization of groups within the Church:

"Here is this Pope saying, “God is love.” Talking about the primary importance of the unity of the church. And while this is going on you have these factions of the church that want to rip their opponents to bits. There’s no justification for that. If these are the people most heavily invested in the church they should be listening most closely to what the Pope has to say. And if he’s saying “Here I am,” and these people are trying to say they’re more Catholic than the Pope, well, that’s not how it works.

We call this church “the bark of Peter.” He’s the helmsman, with the bishops. The rise of the Catholic blogosphere has led to the rise of everyone thinking they’re their own bishop. And thinking they get to decide what elements of church teaching they will follow and enforce and which they will choose to ignore, both on the right and left."

On living our faith in a God of love:

"I’m very hard pressed to understand how people who are committed publicly and experience the perks, both lay and clerical, of being ambassadors of God’s love to the world – how they justify having enemies and hating people. Trying to destroy and go after people and not aspire to the better angels. I have a very hard time seeing how it’s possible to hate anyone. I mean, God is love. That’s the message of this pontificate. These “eager disciples” of Benedict putting their fingers in their ears and going, “lalalalala.” This is supposed to be the man from orthodoxy. And he is. This is the most crucial point of orthodoxy. And this is the contradiction in Christian teaching. Love becomes the teaching. Most teachings you hold in your mind but this is the one you live. It’s kind of staggering and it’s sad. I just do my best. I say I’m an okay Catholic but I’m an aspiring Christian. That kind of perspective helps."

But read it all for yourself, from 'Busted Halo'!