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Papal Motto
A Papal Motto (derived from the Latin papa, meaning "father," and muttum, meaning "mutter") is the official motto of the pope, the Supreme Pontiff (Pontifex Maximus) of the Catholic Church. The Papal Coat of Arms has been used by nearly every pope since the Late Middle Ages and has usually been accompanied by a personal motto written in Latin that the pope intended to define either his papacy or his past ministry within the Church. The first recorded Papal Motto is "Perfice gressus meos in semitis tuis" ("Going in Thy Path") by Pope Celestine III.

Modern Papal Motto
For most of the 17th and 18th centuries, the Papal Motto was either used only as a formality or was neglected altogether. However, in 1903 with the election of St. Pius X, he not only re-instituted the use of the Papal Motto, but also began to use his Papal Motto of "Instaurare Omnia in Christo" ("Restore all things in Christ") heavily in his homilies, writings, and encyclicals. This brought about a resurgence of the use of the Papal Motto by the subsequent nine popes and, with it, a resurgence of reliance upon the motto by each pope in his own teachings and writings. The Papal Motto has come to convey the mindset of each pope at the beginning of his ministry as Holy Father and has been pivotal in the teachings of each modern pope.

While it was Pope Pius X that began the trend of using his Papal Motto heavily in his teachings, it was St. John Paul II that launched the motto as the cornerstone of his, and consequently each subsequent pope's, papal ministry. When Pope John Paul II chose his official motto of "Totus Tuus" ("Totally Yours"), which is oftentimes amended by himself and others as "Totus tuus Maria" ("Totally yours, Mary") to stress the importance of Marian devotion in Catholicism, he wrote an explanation of it in Crossing the Threshold of Hope, one of his first papal interviews, explaining its crucial role in his ministry both before becoming pope and in the decades to come.