User:Jbro68/Gerard Dowling

Father Gerard Dowling is an Australian Catholic priest and radio personality.

He and his twin sister Mary Simpson were born in Essendon in 1932. He has served in several parishes in Melbourne, Australia. Dowling is a well-known priest who trained in social work and began hosting a weekly radio counseling program on Sport 927 in 1973. Dowling's latenight program is called, The Family Counsellor.

Dowling is an avid supporter of the North Melbourne Football Club. He is the author of The North Story, a detailed history of the Club, published in 1997.

He began writing for The Advocate in 1976 and later Kairos in 2000, both Catholic news journals based in Melbourne. Since 1963 he has worked as a counselor with CatholicCare (formerly Centacare). In 1985, Father Dowling received a Medal of the Order of Australia.

Father Dowling was the Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne until 2003 and is known by many for his pastoral outreach. He celebrated his 50th Golden Jubilee in July 2008. Until 23 October 2016 he was the priest-in-residence at St Cecilia's in Glen Iris.