Totus Tuus: Mission and Purpose

Totus Tuus (Latin for “Totally Yours”) is a fun and energetic, weeklong, parish-based summer catechetical program for youth entering 1^st-12^th grade. Totus Tuus gathers together college students and seminarians onto teams of four and sends them out to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ in various parishes throughout the diocese.

The mission of Totus Tuus is to inspire and equip young people to encounter the truth of Jesus Christ through witnessing a true longing for holiness, a deep desire for daily conversion, and a total openness to their vocation. Participants see this mission accomplished by being challenged to daily give themselves entirely to Christ through the most perfect manner, that is, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary. “Totally yours, I give myself to Jesus through Mary.” (Totus tuus, dabo me ad Jesu, per Mariam). Living this mystery calls our youth to become disciples of Jesus Christ by strengthening their prayer lives in imitation of our Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Totus Tuus exists to respond to the call of our recent Holy Fathers for a “new evangelization.” It aims to address the problem of the huge number of young Catholics who are leaving the Church at an earlier age than in the past in favor of modern secularism and a life without faith or religion. By providing them with solid catechesis, genuine Christian witness, and—most importantly—an opportunity to encounter Jesus Christ through the Sacraments, Totus Tuus seeks to evangelize young people in a lasting and profound way.