VARIOUS

Critter Gitters

FAMILYLAND TV At 4:30 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, kids Annie, Jimmy, Nick and Simon rescue animals that need help.

SUNDAY, all day

Mother’s Day

EWTN At 6 a.m., World’s Greatest Mother presents Mary as the model for all mothers. At 11 a.m., Archbishop Fulton Sheen meditates on Mother’s Day. At 2:30 p.m., Diane Bish hosts Joy of Music: Tribute to Mothers. At 6:30 p.m., in his Life Is Worth Living show from the 1950s, Archbishop Sheen explains “What Makes a Mother.”

SUNDAY, 10 p.m.

The Call to Fatima: The Message

EWTN Sister Lucia (1907-2005), the last of the three Portuguese shepherd children to whom the Blessed Mother appeared in 1917, always stressed to the world Mary’s urgent message of prayer, repentance and making reparation for sins personal and worldwide.

MONDAY, 9 p.m.

American Experience: Alexander Hamilton

PBS Brian O’Byrne plays Hamilton (1755-1804), the Founding Father who led the charge for a strong central government and financial system. Hamilton wrote 51 of the 85 Federalist Papers, which argued for the U.S. Constitution. Advisory: TV-PG.

WEDNESDAY, 8 p.m.

Secrets of the Dead: Irish Escape

PBS It was “the sensation of the age” in the United States in August 1876, the centennial of our Declaration of Independence, when the New Bedford whaler Catalpa, under Captain George Anthony, sailed into New York harbor with six Irish political prisoners it had freed from British captivity in Australia. One of the six, John Boyle O’Reilly, became a prominent U.S. journalist and poet. Re-airs 10 p.m. Friday.

WEDNESDAY, 10 p.m.

Modern Marvels: It Came From Outer Space

HISTORY CHANNEL This is not a monster show, but a review of the many U.S. space program inventions now adapted to civilian use. For example, paint designed to protect spacecraft during reentry from orbit now safeguards high-rises; space batteries now help power autos; and astronauts’ oxygen tanks now prove invaluable to firefighters.

THURSDAY, 12 noon, 6:30 p.m.

Solemn Mass of the Ascension

EWTN On this happy feast day, pray along with the celebrant and the congregation at the Cathedral of the Risen Christ in Lincoln, Neb.

SATURDAY, 5 p.m.

The Preakness

NBC Held at “Old Hilltop,” the Pimlico racetrack in Baltimore, the Preakness Stakes is the second leg in horse racing’s annual Triple Crown. This year’s event is the 132nd running of the Preakness.

Dan Engler writes from
Santa Barbara, California.