Hospitality
opens the door to peace.

#PathsOfHospitality is an initiative of the Hospitality Campaign that aims to foster a culture of solidarity and inclusion with people who are forced to migrate. It seeks to leave prejudice behind and build a fraternal culture of hope and encounter with other cultures.

It originates from the legacy left to us by Father Frans Van der Lugt, a Jesuit who died during the siege of Homs in 2014, after spending nearly 50 years living in Syria, where he founded a farm and community center on the outskirts of the city. Father Frans Van der Lugt was deeply loved in his community and known for his annual multi-day walks in the mountains with young people from all religious beliefs and backgrounds. These walks were pioneers in the defense of humanity, symbolizing peace and coexistence among peoples beyond ideologies, religious beliefs, origin, or gender. They also symbolize the rejection of all forms of violence, inequality, and hostility.

Within the diversity of responses and initiatives of the Society of Jesus, hospitality gradually emerged and came to be recognized as a central and cross-cutting element—not only in the work of the Jesuits, but especially in the interaction between migrants and the communities of transit and destination. Through the various Hospitality initiatives launched in the Conferences of Europe and America, we embraced the legacy of Father Van der Lugt, and Paths of Hospitality was born. Over the years, thousands of people have taken part in walks in dozens of cities around the world as a sign of support for the dignity of refugees and migrants.

Many are the journeys that migrants and refugees are still forced to undertake. Situations of violence and armed conflict; poverty and inequality; lack of access to essential resources; and climate change are forcing more than 123 million people to be displaced worldwide. Of these, more than 35 million are refugees living in countries other than their own.