SUNDAY, 9 a.m.

K-9 to 5

ANIMAL PLANET This series profiles our canine pals and the skills and devotion they display when trained for essential tasks. In this episode, a Belgian malinois detects emeralds, a West Highland terrier fends off crabs, and a golden retriever serves as a “balance dog” for a handicapped student.

SUNDAY, 11 a.m.

Extreme Engineering: Tunneling Under the Alps

SCIENCE CHANNEL Projected for completion in 2017, the 35-mile Alptransit Tunnel under the Gotthard massif in the Swiss Alps is creating two single-track tunnels for 150-mph trains. Cross-cuts at intervals will let each tunnel become an escape route for the other.

MONDAY, 3:30 p.m.

The Raising of Lazarus

CATHOLICTV In this Lenten series, Father Lenny Tighe offers meditations inspired by an icon of “The Raising of Lazarus.” Re-airs 6 a.m. Wednesday, 11 p.m. Friday.

TUESDAY, 6 a.m.

Tyburn Tree

EWTN English Protestant rulers from Henry VIII to Oliver Cromwell and beyond torture-murdered more than 100 English and Irish Catholic martyrs on the gallows (“the Tyburn tree”) at Tyburn in London, including English Jesuit St. Edmund Campion in 1581 and St. Oliver Plunkett of Ireland in 1681.

TUESDAY-SATURDAY, live

Pope Benedict Visits Africa

EWTN Pope Benedict XVI will arrive in Cameroon on Tuesday (11 a.m.), meet with bishops on Wednesday (6 a.m.), and meet with the sick on Thursday (11:30 a.m.). He will arrive in Angola on Friday (10 a.m.), meet with bishops (2 p.m.), celebrate Mass on Saturday (5 a.m.), and meet with youth (11:30 a.m.).

WEDNESDAYS, midnight, 9 p.m.

Letter to Families

FAMILYLAND TV In the “Year of the Family” in 1994, Pope John Paul II wrote, in his Gratissimam Sane (Letter to Families), “The history of mankind, the history of salvation, passes by way of the family. … The family is placed at the center of the great struggle between good and evil, between life and death, between love and all that is opposed to love. … I speak with the power of [Christ’s] truth to all people of our day.”

FRIDAY, 10 a.m., 4 p.m.

Modern Marvels: Corn

HISTORY This episode analyzes corn as a crop, product and staple of life. Followed at 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. by “Bread.” Advisory: TV-PG.

FRIDAY, 10 p.m.

History Detectives

PBS Tonight’s topics include the Japanese jet stream balloon bombs that hit the U.S. in World War II and Camp David, the presidential retreat.

Dan Engler writes from
Santa Barbara, California.