VARIOUS

Catholicism

PBS Check your local listings this fall for showings of this new series on the Church by Chicago archdiocesan Father Robert Barron, who heads the Word on Fire media evangelization apostolate. Filmed in 50 locations in the Holy Land, France, Mexico and 13 more countries, the series shows Catholicism’s truth and beauty by exploring Jesus, Mass and the Eucharist, the Blessed Mother, prayer, the saints, the missions and more.

SUNDAY, Sept. 25, live

Pope Benedict XVI Visits Germany

EWTN The Holy Father will say Mass and pray the Angelus in Freiburg im Breisgau. He will lunch with the German Episcopal Conference and meet with the Federal Constitutional Court and Catholic activists. He will preside at a departure ceremony at the airport of Lahr and then leave for Rome.

TUESDAY, Sept. 27, 9am, 10am, 11am

Impossible Bridges

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CHANNEL At 9am, “China” features the Lupu Bridge over the Huangpu River in Shanghai; the Runyang Bridge over the Yangtze River downstream of Nanjing; and the Sutong Yangtze River Bridge between Nantong and Changshu.

At 10am, “Denmark and Sweden” profiles the Oresund Bridge between Copenhagen and Malmo.

At 11am, “Greece” depicts the Rion-Antirion Bridge, which crosses the Gulf of Corinth.

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 28, 9pm, 10pm

Nova

PBS At 9pm, “Japan’s Killer Quake” documents the 9.0 earthquake that struck Japan this past March 11. A re-airing. At 10pm, a new episode, “Surviving the Tsunami,” presents never-before-seen personal and professional videos of the tsunami.

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 5, 9pm

Nova: Building the Great Cathedrals

PBS In this documentary, architects, engineers and historians study Europe’s medieval cathedrals to explore the secrets of their design and construction. A re-airing from 2010.

THURSDAY, Oct. 6, 10pm

The Pursuit of Excellence: Lords of the Gourd

PBS Linus from Peanuts would love this documentary. At the annual Cooperstown Pumpkin Fest in upstate New York, huge pumpkins are the stars as competitors exhibit the record-setting giants they have lovingly raised. A re-airing from 2007.

FRIDAY, Oct. 7, 10am, live

Worldwide Children’s Eucharistic Holy Hour

EWTN Sponsored by Our Lady of Fatima’s Children of the Eucharist, this ninth annual Holy Hour on the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary will take place in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Invited by Archbishop Gregory Aymond of New Orleans, chairman of the USCCB’s Office of Divine Worship, children around the U.S. and the world also will pray along at home and in their parishes.

Dan Engler writes from Santa Barbara, California.