Totus Tuus is a Catholic summer youth program dedicated to sharing the Gospel and promoting the Catholic Faith through catechesis, evangelization, Christian witness and Eucharistic worship. The goal of Totus Tuus is to help young people grow in the understanding of, and strengthen their faith in Jesus Christ. It is only by establishing a real and personal relationship with Him that we can be led to love of the Father in the Spirit and so be made sharers in the life of the Holy Trinity.
 

In their Own Words

Hear about the Totus Tuus experience from teens in the Sacramento Diocese who have participated before.

Schedule

Totus Tuus at St. Patrick runs for a full week (July 29 - August 2) and has two tracks:

• 1st - 6th graders from 9AM - 3PM during the day
• 7th - 12th graders from 6:30 - 8:45 in the evening (teen track runs July 28 - August 1)

In addition to the evening track, teens are encouraged to participate as helpers with the younger kids.
 

Registration and Cost

Interested in having your kids (or grandkids or neighbor kids or nieces or nephews) attend Totus Tuus? Please complete the registration forms below and drop them off at the St. Patrick parish office along with payment. 

• Parish Event Registration Form
• Youth Permission Form
• Photography Release Form

The cost to attend Totus Tuus is $60 per child (including teens) with a per family maximum cost of $120.

A History of Totus Tuus

In 1987, Bernard X. Gorges, a seminarian for the Diocese of Wichita, taught a catechetical summer program to elementary grade students at St. Michael’s Parish in Girard, KS. To stay busy during the summers of 1988-1990, Gorges accepted invitations to teach at 15 different parishes in Southeast Kansas and hired college students to assist him.

In 1991, two teams of four college students were formed to meet the demand for what was then known as the Summer Catechetical Program. By 1993, the program grew to four teams and began expanding its services into parishes within the Diocese of Dodge City, Kansas. During this time, the program informally adopted the name Totus Tuus.

Over the next decade, Totus Tuus expanded into many other dioceses in the Midwest. In 2002, Fr. Jerry Volz, then Director of the Didde Catholic Campus Center at Emporia State University, received permission from Archbishop James P. Keleher to be trained with the first team to come to the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas, making it a ministry of the Archdiocese. One member of that first team was Andrew Strobl, a student from Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas. He is one of the many men who entered the seminary after serving on a Totus Tuus team. Strobl now serves as Co-Director of the program with Fr. Jerry Volz.

Within the first 11 years of the program operating in the Archdiocese, seven women also entered religious life after serving on a summer team. Since becoming a ministry of the Archdiocese in 2001, Totus Tuus of KCK has continued to expand its reach and ministry. By the summer of 2013, four teams were ministering in 23 parishes within the Archdiocese, serving 1816 students.

So, where is Totus Tuus today?

Since its inception in the Diocese of Wichita in 1987, Totus Tuus has expanded from one parish in Kansas to numerous parishes throughout the country. By 2012, 29 dioceses in 16 states across the United States and one diocese in Canada hosted their own Totus Tuus teams.