Bay Ridge bakery’s mural of Pope Francis inspires love, devotion 

Following the death of Pope Francis, many have traveled to a mural of him in Bay Ridge to pay their respects.

The mural, created by artist Delphinoto, is located outside of Little Cupcake Bakeshop at the corner of Third Avenue and 91st Street and was completed in 2020.

“During COVID, I started a project called Art For Laudato Si, inspired by Pope Francis and his ‘Laudato Si,’ which is a document about integral ecology and caring for creation and cries of the poor and cries of the Earth,” he said. “It launched movements around the world, and the Pope really wanted to make it his legacy issue, focusing on not just the environment but the food we eat, the energy we use and all the issues people are talking about now.”

Inspired by Laudato Si, Delphinoto was really passionate about environmental issues and faith and found out how he could use his art to shed light on it.

“The larger pattern is man’s encroachment on the environment, how we reckon with that,” the artist explained. “He really just wanted people to think about this more deeply and go back to St. Francis of Assisi, who was super-connected with nature and man’s relationship to it.

[St. Francis was also connected to] God’s creation. That’s always been something I’ve been drawn to.”

Delphinoto, a Brooklyn native, was raised in Bath Beach. He was inspired by the community when painting the mural.

“Bay Ridge is an awesome community in that there’s a really strong faith tradition, and there’s a lot of different faiths too,” he said. “I think one of the legacies of Pope Francis is his desire to see interreligious dialogue, and people of non-faiths being included. He always said we are all one human family. 

“When I was painting it, a lot of people who weren’t even Catholic would come up to me and said this pope really touched me as a humanitarian as someone who is caring about the poor and that to me was incredible to see,” he said.

Delphinoto was able to meet Pope Francis right before he went to the hospital and presented him with two paintings. One was a portrait of the Pope as a child, and the other was a painting of Mary.

“I was really struck by his childlike demeanor,” he said. “It was really special being in the presence of a very holy person, very tender. I read a lot of his writings.”

When he found out about Pope Francis’ death, Delphinoto was very emotional.

“I cried a few times,” he said. “I was like the world really lost someone special. It felt like a genuine honest man. We lost a really good guy who was fighting the good fight and touched so many people.”

Delphinoto’s parents came to Brooklyn in the 1960’s. His grandfather was a fifth-generation Neapolitan jewelry designer, and his dad was a trained artist and architect.

Later, Delphinoto created Art For Laudato Si, a multi-faceted project that  envisions and brings to life ideas to help address the problems of climate change and wealth inequality. 

Through murals, paintings, events, sculptures and collaboration, it aims to inspire hope, creativity, and action.

Delphinoto has been touched by the love his mural of Pope Francis has received.

“Recently, people are going to the mural and are praying, bringing flowers, crying, and it’s a sad loss,” he said. “He’s, of course, the pope, but he was this human that was really fighting hard to try to make visible issues and people that felt unseen in a lot of ways. That struck a chord with people of all walks of life.”