22-04-2025
Glasgow charity boss who met Pope pays emotional tribute
Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, CEO and founder of Mary's Meals, which is based in Kinning Park, attended the Children's Rights Summit in the Vatican on February 3.
Magnus said: 'Even when I saw him, at what turned out to be his last major meeting, he was clearly coping with health issues and he was struggling to breathe.
"But that didn't stop him passionately telling all of us that 'nothing is more important than the life of a child.'
'Even in his suffering he insisted on staying with us for most of that day, an intense working session, and he made sure too, that he didn't leave any of us without a personal warm greeting and a smile that somehow – on every occasion I met him – left me with a deep new feeling of hope and courage.'
Magnus Macfarlane-Barrow (Image: Colin Mearns/Newsquest)
Mary's Meals grew out of a charity called Scottish International Relief (SIR), which was set up after Magnus and his brother Fergus took aid from their home in Scotland to Bosnia-Herzegovina during the conflict in 1992.
It now feeds millions of children in some of the world's poorest countries, by providing a hot school meal each day.
READ NEXT: 'Heart of the Castlemilk community': Glasgow pitches re-open after £1.2m boost
READ NEXT: 'We are broken': Outpouring of grief after 'inspirational' young worker dies
Magnus added: 'It was a fitting last meeting, I suppose – a continuation of what he said at the start of his pontificate, in 2013, speaking on behalf of 'all those who suffer because of the scandal of hunger', reminding the world that we are 'in front of a global scandal of around one billion people who still suffer from hunger today.
"'We cannot look the other way and pretend this does not exist. The food available in the world is enough to feed everyone.''
Magnus said the Pope's words and actions 'have been a source of great encouragement to all of us working to eradicate hunger – and we need to let them inspire us to action now more than ever.'
He added: 'As we mourn him, let's celebrate his life and honour his memory by continuing to lift our voices in an unending roar on behalf of every neglected, ignored and hungry child in this world.
"And let us pray, as Pope Francis taught us, asking God to give us the grace to envisage a world in which no one must ever again die of hunger.'
