All times eastern

SUNDAY

Feast of St. Pio of Pietrelcina

EWTN “Pray, pray to the Lord with me, because the whole world needs prayer,” said St. Pio of Pietrelcina (1887-1968), the Italian Capuchin mystic who bore the stigmata, the wounds of Christ. On the 39th anniversary of Padre Pio’s entrance into eternal life, EWTN presents At the Gates of Heaven at 5 a.m., about his canonization process; Encounter with Padre Pio at 5 p.m., a film by his close friend Msgr. Giancarlo Setti; and Faith and Hope: St. Pio of Pietrelcina at 9 p.m., with film of him saying Mass.

SUNDAY-WEDNESDAY, 8 p.m. nightly

The War

PBS This new seven-part, 15-hour documentary by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick chronicles U.S. participation in World War II by interspersing combat film, still photos and other material with interviews of surviving combat veterans and their family members from Minnesota, Alabama, California and Connecticut. The first four segments air this week and the last three air Sept. 30 and Oct. 1 and 2. Advisory: TV-14 (parents strongly cautioned) for scenes of battle, carnage, mass graves, etc.

MONDAY-FRIDAY, 3 a.m., 6:30 p.m. daily

The Science Before Science

EWTN In this five-part series, physicist Anthony Rizzi shows that when science divorces itself from legitimate philosophy, culture and morality deteriorate. Rizzi explains how faith and reason are compatible, how knowledge comes to us through the senses, the nature of the soul, and the ways that men, angels, animals and robots differ.

WEDNESDAY, 8 p.m.

EWTN Live

EWTN Jesuit Father Mitch Pacwa’s guests, Msgr. Michael Schmitz, the vicar general of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, and architect William Heyer, discuss the restoration of Chicago’s Shrine of Christ the King. The institute, which is international, has a Blessed John XXIII Mass apostolate in the United States.

WEDNESDAY, 9 p.m.

Lost Worlds: The Vikings

HISTORY CHANNEL From the end of the eighth century into the 11th, the Vikings raided coastal monasteries and towns in Ireland, England, France and elsewhere. Advisory: TV-PG.

FRIDAY, 10:30 a.m.

Diabetes and You

FAMILYLAND TV Learn all about diabetes: Its symptoms, risk factors, diagnosis, prevention and treatment.

SATURDAY, 8 p.m.

When I Grow Up

FAMILYLAND TV Michael Kanin directed this 1951 drama about Josh (Bobby Driscoll), a boy who feels unloved and decides to run away but changes his mind after chancing upon a diary from 1890 in which his grandpa, then a boy, wrote of similar feelings that changed after he caught typhoid fever and his dad died from it while caring for him.

Dan Engler writes from
Santa Barbara, California.