{"id":1805746,"date":"2021-12-22T19:43:07","date_gmt":"2021-12-23T00:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/?p=1805746"},"modified":"2021-12-22T19:43:07","modified_gmt":"2021-12-23T00:43:07","slug":"the-map-lady-and-the-catholic-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2021\/12\/the-map-lady-and-the-catholic-church\/","title":{"rendered":"The Map Lady and the Catholic Church"},"content":{"rendered":"

Earlier this year, the New Yorker<\/em> published a profile of Molly Burhans<\/a>. Burhans is the founder of GoodLands<\/a>, a Catholic organization focusing on mobilizing the land and resources of the Church to address climate change and other environmental issues. Burhans, whose background is in GIS, began by wanting to analyse the Church\u2019s property holdings; she soon found out that the Church\u2019s own record-keeping was somewhere between out of date and nonexistent\u2014and certainly not digital.<\/p>\n

In the Office of the Secretariat of State that day, Burhans met with two priests. She showed them the prototype map that she had been working on, and explained what she was looking for. \u201cI asked them where their maps were kept,\u201d she said. The priests pointed to the frescoes on the walls. \u201cThen I asked if I could speak to someone in their cartography department.\u201d The priests said they didn\u2019t have one.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Burhans, who became known as the Map Lady at the Vatican, was asked if she\u2019d be willing to create a cartography institute at the Vatican; plans to develop one have been waylaid by the COVID-19 pandemic (Burhans came down with a significant case herself.) Fascinating piece depicting the gap between modern data and an ancient institution, and the notion of using data as a force for progress. Thanks to John Greenhough for sending me a copy of this article; apologies for taking months to post about it.<\/p>\n

Another profile of Burhans<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Earlier this year, the New Yorker published a profile of Molly Burhans. Burhans is the founder of GoodLands, a Catholic organization focusing on mobilizing the land and resources of the Church to address climate change… More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[187,28],"tags":[1549,1548],"class_list":["post-1805746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","hentry","category-environment","category-gis","tag-catholic-church","tag-religion","post_format-post-format-link"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":815139,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2017\/12\/two-more-books-for-2017\/","url_meta":{"origin":1805746,"position":0},"title":"Two More Books for 2017","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"26 December 2017","format":"link","excerpt":"The year 2017 is almost at an end, but two\u00a0more map books, published last month, have just come to my attention (via, as usual, the WMS\u2019s indefatigable Bert Johnson). These, then, are very late additions to the Map Books of 2017 page: Sad Topographies by Damien Rudd (Simon & Schuster),\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "GIS"","block_context":{"text":"GIS","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/gis\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/sad-topographies-115x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/sad-topographies-115x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/sad-topographies-115x150.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/sad-topographies-115x150.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/sad-topographies-115x150.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1841418,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2025\/05\/reimagining-gis\/","url_meta":{"origin":1805746,"position":1},"title":"Reimagining GIS","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"30 May 2025","format":"link","excerpt":"Linda Stevens says it\u2019s time to move past GIS: Since its inception, the evolution of GIS has often felt like forcing a\u00a0square peg into a round hole. Over the years, the layer-based model has been stretched and modified to accommodate everything from long transaction editing to the intricate modeling of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "GIS"","block_context":{"text":"GIS","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/gis\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3934,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2017\/02\/eighth-edition-of-map-use\/","url_meta":{"origin":1805746,"position":2},"title":"Eighth Edition of Map Use","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"15 February 2017","format":"link","excerpt":"This one slipped past me: the eighth edition of\u00a0Map Use: Reading Analysis, Interpretation, the college textbook by\u00a0A. Jon Kimerling,\u00a0Aileen R. Buckley, Phillip C. Muehrcke and Juliana O. Muehrcke, came out last November from Esri Press. [GIS Lounge]","rel":"","context":"In "Cartography"","block_context":{"text":"Cartography","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/cartography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/map-use-116x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1833466,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2024\/08\/tim-walz-is-a-huge-gis-nerd\/","url_meta":{"origin":1805746,"position":3},"title":"Tim Walz Is a Huge GIS Nerd","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"7 August 2024","format":"link","excerpt":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/Ni8BrT0-6gM Yesterday, U.S. Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris announced Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate. Among other things, Walz is a former social studies teacher and early adopter of GIS as a teaching tool, and has nerded out on geography and GIS throughout his political\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "GIS"","block_context":{"text":"GIS","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/gis\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/Ni8BrT0-6gM\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2958,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2016\/09\/a-map-of-canadas-roads-and-highways\/","url_meta":{"origin":1805746,"position":4},"title":"A Map of Canada’s Roads and Highways","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"30 September 2016","format":"link","excerpt":"This striking high-resolution map of Canada's roads and highways, produced by EarthArtAustralia, is a work of GIS: it's\u00a0assembled from Canadian GIS road data, with\u00a0roads coloured and weighted by importance (freeways are bright yellow, back roads are blue). This map is also inarguably a work of art: I\u00a0could\u00a0easily have one on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"earthartaustralia-canada","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/earthartaustralia-canada-1024x839.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/earthartaustralia-canada-1024x839.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/earthartaustralia-canada-1024x839.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/earthartaustralia-canada-1024x839.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3582,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2016\/12\/other-gift-guides\/","url_meta":{"origin":1805746,"position":5},"title":"Other Gift Guides","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"11 December 2016","format":"link","excerpt":"If you can't find what you're looking for in my own gift guides to map books and calendars, here are a few\u00a0gift guides assembled by my map-blogging colleagues and\u00a0map companies: All Over the Map's 10 gifts for map lovers and travellers. A-Z Maps'\u00a0Christmas gift ideas for map lovers. 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