Catholics in Media Associates' (CIMA) 16th Mass and Awards Brunch March 29 will honor Louis Gossett, Jr. for Lifetime Achievement, the feature film "Doubt" and the CBS television series "Without A Trace."

The celebration, to be held for the first time in the Crystal Ballroom of the Beverly Hills Hotel, will begin with a Mass at 10 a.m. with a brunch and awards ceremony to follow. Mark Derwin, costar of ABC Family's "Secret Life of an American Teenager," will emcee.

The CIMA Awards were created in 1992 by former DGA president Jack Shea and other prominent Catholics in the entertainment industry. Their purpose is to promote and applaud individuals, films and TV programs that uplift the spirit and help us better understand what it is to be part of the human family.

Gossett will receive the CIMA Lifetime Achievement Award for his personal and professional achievements which span a half-century. The recipient of an Academy Award, Golden Globe Award and NAACP Image Award for his role in the 1982 film "An Officer and a Gentleman," Gossett's career encompasses motion pictures, television and the Broadway stage, where he made his debut in 1961 in "A Raisin in the Sun." Memorable television appearances include starring roles in the epic mini-series "Roots" and "Sadat."

In 2006, Gossett founded the non-profit Eracism Foundation whose mission is the eradication all forms of racism by providing programs that foster cultural diversity, historical enrichment, education and anti-violence initiatives. Past CIMA Lifetime Achiement Award recipients include Gregory Peck, Martin Sheen, Rosemary Clooney, Jane Wyatt, Ricardo Montalban, Dick Van Dyke, Carroll O'Connor and Lew Wasserman.

"Doubt," written and directed by Academy Award and WGA Award-winning screenwriter John Patrick Shanley ("Moonstruck"), was adapted from the author's 2005 Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning Broadway play. Nominated for five Academy Awards and Golden Globe Awards, including "Best Screenplay," "Doubt" is set in 1964 at a Bronx Catholic elementary school and concerns the confrontation between a progressive priest and a strong-minded principal over the priest's excessive interest in the school's first African-American student.

"I have been fortunate," said Shanley, "in the uniformly positive reactions I have received from the Catholic community to 'Doubt' and I am gratified beyond words. American Catholicism has shown itself to be generous and robust in its embrace of new ways of looking at the Catholic experience."

Past CIMA Award feature films include "The Valley of Elah," "Narnia," "Hotel Rwanda," "The Passion of the Christ," "Seabiscuit," "Dead Man Walking," "Schindler's List" and "Saving Private Ryan."

The CBS/Warner Bros Television/Jerry Bruckheimer Productions dramatic series "Without A Trace," created in 2002 by Hank Gardner and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, concerns a fictitious FBI missing persons unit. Each episode focuses on the search for one individual along with an examination of the personal lives of the team members and their insight --- and sometime traumatic reactions -- to certain cases.

Past CIMA Television Award recipients include "Ugly Betty," "Cold Case," "Medium," "Joan of Arcadia," "The West Wing," Judging Amy," "Homicide - Life on the Streets," "The Practice" and "Mr. Rogers Neighborhood."

Tickets to the 2009 CIMA Awards can be purchased by calling (818) 907-2734 or online at www.catholicsinmedia.org.