Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 4, 2020 / 08:30 am
Like a lot of people, Mike Del Ponte found himself getting upset seeing the daily map updates tracking the spread of COVID-19. So he and a few friends decided to create a different map, tracking a different kind of spread: the spread of prayer and hope.
Launched on April 28, The Map of Hope is a platform where people post their prayer intentions, and offer a rosary for someone else. Users tag their location, which places a dot on the map. The more people are praying in an area, the bigger the dot grows. In less than a week, The Map of Hope has already charted more than 4,800 prayer intentions, spanning all 50 states and over 130 countries.
The site also contains instructions on how to pray the Rosary, links to live recitations of the Rosary, and information about miracles attributed to the Rosary.
Del Ponte, who is involved with startups in Silicon Valley, joined up with his friends Joe Kim, Joanna Hernandez, and worked out the details of the website. Kim, who serves as the site's creative director, is also a design teacher at a Catholic school; and Hernandez handles the administration of the website.