By Tobias Karcher, SJ | Lassalle-Haus, Province of Central Europe
[From “Jesuits 2024 - The Society of Jesus in the world”]

Fruitful cooperation between Lassalle-Haus and Zuwebe in Switzerland.

Janine, who is 21 years old, has been working in the fields of our Lassalle Haus for two years. She often returns home in the evening tired, but always satisfied. She tells us, “My favourite job? I like harvesting vegetables, portioning them, and getting them ready for the baskets we then sell. It’s just nice to see what has grown in our garden. And it’s quite incredible what can fit in a seed.” And Noah reports, “At the moment we are harvesting the last cucumbers. The cucumber season is over now. We are emptying the beds. The leaves and the undergrowth must go on the compost. And the compost has to be turned regularly. Not necessarily my favourite job, but you can’t like doing everything.”

Janine and Noah talk about their work at Zuwebe, an organization offering work and housing for people with disabilities, in the canton of Zug. Since 2018, Zuwebe has been responsible for the garden and park at Lassalle-Haus, the Swiss Jesuits᾿ Centre for Spirituality. The collaboration with this institution, which accompanies people with physical, mental, and cognitive disabilities in our canton, is proving to be a great stroke of luck for our centre. Throughout the year, up to 14 garden workers tend the park and fields in Bad Schönbrunn. Vegetables, lettuce, and flowers are once again planted on the one and a half hectare area. During the warm months, vegetables are harvested and can be purchased fresh daily by subscription or in the form of vegetable baskets. Seedlings are also grown and sold. Most of the vegetables that are prepared for the guests in the Lassalle-Haus kitchen come from the farm’s own garden. In the meantime, the farm has been certified organic.

Almost 100 years ago, the Jesuits returned to Switzerland after being expelled during the Kulturkampf and founded one of the first retreat houses in Switzerland in Bad Schönbrunn, between Zurich and Lucerne. While the fathers devoted themselves to the retreats, the Jesuit brothers tended the garden and supplied the retreat house with fresh fruit and vegetables. The 1970s were then marked by the awakening of the Second Vatican Council and, at the same time, by a strong wave of secularisation in Western Europe, which also had an impact on religious vocations. No more brothers found their way to Bad Schönbrunn. So, the cultivation of the fields was discontinued gradually. In the 1990s, when the 34^th General Congregation began to address the issue of interreligious dialogue, the Jesuits opened their centre to Eastern spirituality. They were inspired by Jesuit father Hugo Enomiya-Lassalle, the former Provincial of Japan, who began to offer Zen courses in Europe, including here in Bad Schönbrunn. Our house is named after him. Along with the openness to different spiritual traditions, silence has also been a hallmark of the Lassalle-Haus. The silence that also inspires our friends with disabilities. In 2015, with the publication of Laudato si’, the question also arose as to what it meant for us, Jesuits, at Bad Schönbrunn. That is when we became aware anew of the richness of our fields and our small forest, which characterises the grounds of our Lassalle-Haus. We then got into conversation with Zuwebe, the organisation for disabled people in our canton.

Garden and forest also play a role in our Eco Summer Camp, to which we have been inviting young people from Switzerland and its surrounding countries for three years. In the morning, experts will be on hand to discuss and understand the phenomenon of climate change and biodiversity. In the afternoon, young people are invited to work our gardens and fields together with Janine and Noah. And with the harvested vegetables, they will also take care of the cooking and supplies for the camp, a week long experience.

The highlight of the year for our friends of Zuwebe is the Tomato Seedling Day, which is known and famous throughout the region. Many amateur gardeners come to buy seedlings for their home. The visitors are greeted in the car park of our centre. Then the numerous guests are led along the flowerbeds up to the nursery, and from there to the beds of tomato seedlings. Noah and Janine explain to us how important it is to be careful not to mix the different tomato varieties. It would be unthinkable if a customer who actually wanted cherry tomatoes suddenly discovered huge beef tomatoes in his garden! Everybody had to smile... It is this type of encounter that make us feel very happy about the fruitful cooperation between Lassalle and Zuwebe.