A sign of summer: Totus Tuus missionaries bring faith to life for young Catholics

By Dc. Tom Cuskey, editor

They are a team of twelve, called by Jesus to spread the Good News of the Gospel among the children of God. 

No, not two-thousand years ago but summer 2023, and if this doesn’t suggest that the Holy Spirit is at work in the Diocese of Syracuse, nothing probably will.

The Totus Tuus missionaries, a dozen of them assigned to our diocese, are out among us this summer, working with our youth and young adults at parishes hosting this unique faith program. They are college-age disciples from as close by as DeWitt to as far away as Washington State. These young men and women — including two of our seminarians — are pursuing various avenues of study, but they share a common bond: a love of the Lord and a desire to serve. 

According to the Totus Tuus website, as many as fifty dioceses across North America host the program every summer, “dedicated to sharing the Gospel and promoting the Catholic Faith through catechesis, evangelization, Christian witness and Eucharistic worship.” 

Bob Walters, director of the diocesan Office of Youth and Young Adults Ministry, celebrates this as the sixth year for Totus Tuus in the diocese. “It’s a milestone for us,” he says, adding that the elementary program is built on a six-year curriculum so parishes and their youngsters are encouraged to make this an annual event. 

“Totus Tuus has a wide reaching impact on the diocese,” he adds,” from the missionaries themselves and the formation they receive to the parishes they serve in, including the children, the teens and their families.” He says it’s “ life changing” for the missionaries who are truly evangelizing the communities they visit. “They really are introducing people to the faith for the first time. Some of the individuals who attend, their families become Catholic.”