By Katie Vasquez
Since 1937, Laguli Pastry Shop in Astoria has been making Italian sweets.
“The traditional Italian cannolis, the sfordale,” said Maria Notaro, owner of Laguli Pastry Shop.
Notaro’s grandfather, Paolo Notaro, started the business after immigrating from Palermo, Sicily.
“It’s a sense of pride,” said Notaro. “It’s a sense of, you know, my grandfather built this. He was, you know, a pioneer back in the twenties when he came over.”
And for the past almost 100 years, his shop— and his faith—has been passed down through the generations.
In 2015, Notaro got the chance to combine the two together, creating this commemorative cookie for the Holy Father’s visit to the U.S.
“It’s a shortbread cookie,” Notaro said. “So eggs, flour, sugar, butter.”
Notaro is a parishioner of Immaculate Conception Church and continues to be inspired by the pope.
In May of this year, she watched in awe as the Holy Father visited Verona’s Montorio Prison, which has some of the highest suicide rates in Italy.
“I feel like these prisoners aren’t treated as humans at a certain point. And he just brought humanity back to them.”
The images moved her to spread the pope’s message of hope.
She teamed up with Father Zachariah Presutti, founder of Thrive for Life Prison Project, a non-profit that creates opportunities for spiritual development for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals. The pair brought 100 Pope Francis cookies to Rikers Island, a special treat for the inmates after Mass.
“Baking for somebody is very human,” said Father Zachariah Presutti, founder of Thrive for Life Prison Project. “So it was a very dignified visit.”
The commemorative cookie—changing from novelty to a sweet memory for Notaro and the inmates.
“They were like, I don’t want to eat the Pope,” said Notaro.
One she hopes will motivate the men behind bars to move toward a better path.
“There’s definitely this much more to this life,” Notaro added. “It doesn’t end here.”