North Carolina's two bishops were at the legislature Thursday.

The Bishop Michael F. Burbidge of Raleigh and Bishop Peter Jugis of Charlotte came to promote a unified voice on public policy issues from some of the 800,000 Catholics in the state.

"We share the right to add our voice to the public discussion of issues," Burbidge said.

The initiative involves an interactive Web site that sends alerts to Catholics on legislation of concern to the church, including such issues as abortion and stem cell research as well as immigration. 

They also announced that Monsignor Michael Clay, pastor of St. Ann Catholic Church in Clayton, will serve as the first permanent lobbyist for Catholics at the legisltaure.

The dioceses will also send a questionnaire to gubernatorial and Congressional candidates and post the results on the Web site in October. (N&O)

Two North Carolina bishops oppose state funding of stem cell research.

Roman Catholic Bishop Michael F. Burbidge of the diocese of Raleigh has written a letter to members of the N.C. House Committee on Science and Technology opposing the draft of a bill in the General Assembly that would publicly fund embyronic stem cell research, Yonat Shimron reports.

The letter, which he co-signed with Bishop Peter J. Jugis of the diocese of Charlotte, reiterates the Catholic teaching that embryos constitute human life.

Bishops Burbidge and Jugis said they supported adult and umbilical cord blood stem cell research.

"We stand ready to mobilize these citizens and their like-minded supporters of other beliefs and traditions to contact their legislators opposing this bill should it advance beyond the House Committee on Science and Technology," the two bishops wrote.

North Carolina's Catholic bishops are against a bill to change sex ed.

In a letter to House Speaker Joe Hackney, Most Rev. Michael Burbidge of Raleigh and Most Rev. Peter Jugis of Charlotte say they share "grave concern" about the changes:

"We wish to go on record strongly opposing this bill and want you to know that we will do everything in our power to activate the Roman Catholics of our State to lobby their legislators to oppose the passage of this bill. This is not an action we would take lightly."

The bill would change a state law to base abstinence education on health, not morals. It would also exert more state control over local sex ed curricula.