VARIOUS

Faith Works:

Across the USA 2005

ABC; check local listings

From our U.S. bishops’ Catholic Communications Campaign, this 60-minute program shows Catholic individuals and groups serving their neighbors. Profiles include: Minnesota grandma Mary Larsen feeding more than 150 needy families out of her home each month in a 30-year effort; Houston Catholics sheltering Katrina victims; Jesuit Father Greg Boyle's Homeboy Industries reclaiming Latino gang members in Los Angeles through job training; and the Boston-area Chernobyl Children Project hosting radiation-stricken children from Ukraine and Belarus for vacations and medical care.

VARIOUS

Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger:

My Vatican

PBS; check local listings

In this 45-minute special, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger escorts us through the Vatican's archives, museums, catacombs and other areas that members of the public rarely see.

SUNDAY, NOV. 13

Nature: Can Animals

Predict Disaster?

PBS, 8 p.m.

Animals often seem to sense earthquakes and other disasters before they happen. The Dec. 26 earthquake and tsunami in South Asia last year provided fresh examples, with reports of elephants, hippos, antelope and flamingoes becoming anxious and fleeing coastlines. Scientists are studying ground contact, low-detection sound waves and shifts in magnetic fields and electrical current intensities as possible explanations.

TUESDAY, NOV. 15

Nova: Newton's Dark Secrets

PBS, 8 p.m.

Even geniuses can make mistakes when they venture outside their areas of expertise. English scientist Isaac Newton (1642-1727) laid the foundation for modern mathematics and science but also made unfortunate forays into theology and alchemy.

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 16

In Search of Myths

And Heroes

PBS, 9 p.m.

Tonight, historian Michael Wood goes to East Africa and Yemen to probe the history of the Queen of Sheba and travels to Ireland, Scotland and the other Celtic nations to seek out a real-life basis for King Arthur. Next Wednesday, same time, Wood searches for the real Shangri-La and asks if Jason and the Argonauts really did exist.

FRIDAY, NOV. 18

The World Over:

USCCB Wrap-Up

EWTN, 8 p.m.

This two-hour news special sums up the U.S. bishops’ fall meeting.

SATURDAY, NOV. 19

God Touches a Life:

Catherine Laboure, Messenger of Mary Immaculate

EWTN, 8 p.m.

This show tells how the Blessed Mother visited St. Catherine Laboure (1806-1876) in her convent in Paris in 1830 and gave her the Miraculous Medal for all of us.

Dan Engler writes from Santa Barbara, California.