Jesuits Global, the Society of Jesus' worldwide information website, dedicates a report to the hospitality network promoted by Migra Studium in the Apostolic Platform of Catalonia. The project is coordinated by Pau Vidal SJ, who has participated in this report along with other people involved in the network.

For Pau Vidal, through Migra Studium, the Society of Jesus offers an open door to people who, after months or years of migratory transit, arrive in Barcelona with the hope of starting a better future, especially to those who are most vulnerable. And among the various projects and activities of Migra Studium, the residential reception of refugees and migrants in homes and families, with the slogan Hospitalaris. Since its inception in 2017, more than 70 people have been able to share the day-to-day life of a home for a few months, exchanging experiences and knowledge on a daily basis. "Opening up to the other, to the one I perhaps perceive as the outsider, is always an opportunity to grow and make us more human," Pau points out.

The experience of this welcome transforms everyone who participates in it. Marta Baylina, a teacher and mother of a family, is living a second hosting experience. "Our children have naturally become sensitive to the situation of immigrants and refugees and, without making a big deal out of it, they share this beautiful experience with their friends. They are more aware that life for them is easy, while for other young people their age it is very hard." After welcoming a young man from Syria, a young man from Senegal is now living with them.

Aattaa Allah Marjani is a young Moroccan who has been taken in by the Hospitalaris network. At the age of 17 he left his country to seek a future in Europe. He found himself without family, without friends, without knowing the language... living on the street or in squats. It was thanks to the coordinator of the soccer team in which he played that he came to Migra Studium, and was welcomed into a family. Now, still with the support of Migra Studium, he lives in a shared apartment, living with other young people from different countries. "I have changed a lot, I have learned a lot. Here I have the opportunity to progress as an athlete," he says with enthusiasm.

For her part, Pilar Pavia Sala, a Sacred Heart nun and coordinator of the network together with Pau Vidal, explains that the project, despite the difficulties and the pandemic, has evolved over time, welcoming people in different ways. He also points out the commitment of the Society of Jesus in the project, from Ignatian spirituality as an inspiration. "The same spirit, no doubt, that moved Peter Claver: the situation has changed since his time, but the issue of fundamental rights - those rights that slaves did not have - remains of the first order. We are working to make it clear that there cannot be citizens of different categories, some with full rights and others with fewer rights or freedoms."

Follow this link to read the full testimony.

Source: Jesuitas Social