News Briefs

The Mexican Supreme Court on Sept. 26 debated the legality of two states’ constitutional amendments declaring that human life begins at conception. • Movies that present assisted suicide in a positive light are adding renewed momentum to efforts to legalize physician-assisted suicide, said Dan Mindling, a Capuchin Franciscan priest, during a seminar conducted on the Internet on Sept. 20. • Nobel Peace Price-winner Wangari Maatthai, founder of the Greenbelt Movement, which planted more than 30 million trees in Kenya, died on Sept. 25 at age 71. • Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, who is president of the U.S.C.C.B., told President Obama in a letter dated Sept. 20 that his administration’s fight against the Defense of Marriage Act will undermine marriage and create a serious breach of church-state relations. • More than 200 Catholic theologians have signed a statement calling on the United States to abolish capital punishment and asking the church to work “unwaveringly” toward that goal.