Mark Dowd
Other Work
The Quest For God In A Broken World
My Tsunami Journey
How to reconcile belief in a loving God with the suffering of innocent human beings and earthly creatures in the natural world? This question, as old as the Old Testament’s Book of Job, has been mainly grappled with over the centuries by learned theologians and philosophers. But in this groundbreaking work, the author is sent on a journey across thousands of miles to speak to Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists and Christians like himself
Published April 11 2022
A Life of Contradiction
Queer and Catholic
This superb memoir of a gay, working class boy from Manchester exploring how to reconcile his sexuality with his Catholicism is all the more powerful because of his deep knowledge of and commitment to his faith. Spanning the late 1960s to the present day, Mark Dowd’s Queer and Catholic chronicles a changing attitude to same-sex attraction over more than half a century and is packed with stories in turn funny, deeply moving and spiritually insightful, including: coming out to his parents by talking in his sleep, training to become a Dominican priest before eloping from a religious order with an ex friar, and attending the funeral of his father – accompanied by his father!
Playlist
Television program
My Tsunami Journey
Television program
GOD IS GREEN
Playlist
Television program
CHILDREN OF ABRAHAM
Why has there been such tension and distrust between the descendants of Abraham, the patriarchal figure who is key to Jews, Christians and Muslims alike? Does the sharing of this heritage offer a starting point for dialogue and peace-building in places like the Middle East and beyond. In this three part series, Mark Dowd travels to the Holy Land, to troubled Bosnia and visits Death Row to talk to a man who killed two Asian men after the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers.
Television program
OPUS DEI and the DA VINCI CODE
Dan Brown’s international best seller put the Catholic group OPUS DEI firmly in the public spotlight. But how accurate is this depiction? Brown casts them as a bunch of self-flagellating, power-hungry sect members, but in this documentary, Mark Dowd gets rare inside access and paints a picture of an organization that is rather different to the world of The Da Vinci Code.
Television program
QUEER and CATHOLIC
Why are gay men so over-represented in the Catholic priesthood? As all candidates for the priesthood are meant to be celibate and abstain from sexual behaviour, does this present a problem or not? Why does the church still teach that such acts as “objectively disordered?” What does the Church say to LGBT women and men about love, commitment and their human desires for companionship?
Television program
ABUSED and CATHOLIC
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AFTER SUICIDE
It is rare when a family member or friend takes his or her own life, that much thought is given to those around the deceased who have to cope with the aftermath. Complex feelings of guilt, anger and sadness can lead to self-recrimination. No one, it seems, really wants to talk about it.
In this one hour documentary, Mark Dowd explores these themes in frank discussions with those who have been through the pain and grief and comes up with some constructive advice for those who are caught up in post-suicidal grief.
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INSIDE THE VATICAN
Part One
Part Two
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THE POWER OF MIRACLES
What exactly is a miracle and what is the purpose of prayer when examining stories of cures that defy all scientific and medical logic? In this two part series, Mark visits Italy and talks to those who claim to have witnessed miraculous events. Are they telling the truth or are they deluded??
RADIO
SIN and the CONFESSIONAL
What is the sacrament of Confession? Is it more than personal therapy and how do people who participate in this centuries, old tradition combat the charge that automatic forgiveness just encourages people to keep on behaving badly? What does it mean to say a penitent has to be “genuinely contrite?”
RADIO
ROMERO: a Saint for the Americas
Who was Oscar Romero? Why was he gunned down in 1980 when saying mass, by a brutal military regime? And why did the Roman Catholic Church take more than thirty five years to recognize his saintly qualities? Mark Dowd visits El Salvador to find out
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CHOOSING LIFE
In this two part series, Mark examines the arguments for and against assisted dying. He meets people on both sides of the argument: Alison, a woman in her late fifties with spina bifida who tried to take her own life and is now grateful that that option was not on the table at the time of her despair. And Edward, who lost both his parents to cruel and painful neurological diseases and who had to listen to his mother’s request to end her own life with the support of her children.
Part One
Part Two
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The Icon Painters of Bethlehem
Mark meets two inspirational young artists from Bethlehem who have been allowed t travel from the West Bank to the UK’s Lichfield Cathedral, to study the art of icon painting.
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A Mother’s Good Friday
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A God-shaped hole
Is there, at the heart of the human condition, a space where the divine can make us whole? Or is this “pining for God” merely an illusion? Mark talks to a panel of believers and doubters in a fascinating discussion.
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Man’s search for meaning
The life and story of Viktor Frankl, Jewish holocaust survivor who undergoes extreme torment and loss and yet emerges from the concentration camp with a renewed sense of purpose in life. How is this possible? Why do some individual break under intense duress and others not only survive intact, but seem to gather strength and inspiration in the most trying of circumstances?
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The Truth about Pope Francis.
One of the earliest documentaries about Pope Francis after his election in March 2013 to the papacy, which examines charges that, as a senior church figure, he colluded with Argentina’s oppressive military junta between 1976 and 1982. What is the truth behind accusations that he gave up on two Jesuit priests and left them to their fate at the hands of a cruel dictatorship?
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Driving out the Devil
Are people ‘Possessed’ by daemons or is it a case of mental illness that’s being ignored? Mark Dowd meets those who practice exorcism to understand whether the Devil is real, or a figment of the human imagination.
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The Body
In Jesus’ day, looking after the dead body of someone you loved was a very hands-on affair. Why is it, then, that Christians – at least in Britain – are now so squeamish about it? Why do we prefer to leave the job to funeral directors and at best view the body after it’s been laid out and made to look as life-like as possible?
In this Holy Week and Easter podcast, Mark Dowd goes out to find some answers.