Doubt in your religious beliefs is that uncomfortable topic no one wants to broach. So … let’s talk about it!

VATICAN – Having some doubts is definitely better than having no doubts at all, Pope Francis told a group of seminarians.

I grew up far away from my current home in Vancouver. My parents, Mauro and Gertrude Dsouza, made their home in Bangalore, India, and my childhood was filled with storybooks, swimming pools, piano classes and ballet lessons. Not to forget about school! 

VATICAN CITY – The worst sin of all is not trusting in God's infinite love and not believing that God is always waiting for his sinning children to return to him, Pope Francis said.

“Where there is doubt, faith.”

19th Sunday in Ordinary Time Aug. 10, (1 Kings 19:9, 11-13; Psalm 85; Romans 9:1-5; Matthew 14:22-33) 

To many people God seems absent from our world. Often it is difficult to discern the presence of God in one’s own life. Part of the reason is that our perception of God is filtered through far too many expectations. We have set ideas about how God is to be revealed and they are usually dramatic, flashy and filled with displays of power — all fine material for Hollywood biblical epics. Compounding the problem is the tendency of ancient peoples to assign manifestations of nature to the immediate hand of God. Our scientific understanding of the natural order would prevent most of us from seeing the hand of God in an earthquake, hurricane or tsunami.