NEW YORK — By most accounts, the Republican National Convention produced positive results for Catholics, including a platform which, while not perfect, includes language that maintains the party's pro-life positions and remains consistent with Church teaching on important moral issues.

Even so, Catholic activists expressed deep misgivings over the prominent role abortion supporters played in the proceedings.

James Bopp, a delegate from Indiana and general counsel to the National Right to Life Committee since 1978, has served for 24 years on the committee that crafts the pro-life plank of the Republican platform.

He said the drafting process went better than expected at this convention. The section entitled “Promoting a Culture of Life” generally affirms the party's positions against abortion — including support of a human-life amendment to the Constitution.

“What is really notable is that, for the first time in many years, there wasn't any motion to weaken the plank,” Bopp said. “No statement was made against it, whereas, in the past, we figured that every four years there was going to be a fight … I think (that) illustrates how the pro-life position has become broadly accepted in the party.”

The platform also indicates that President George W. Bush will “vigorously defend the Defense of Marriage Act,” which “reaffirms the right of states not to recognize same-sex marriages licensed in other states.” It encourages abstinence as a healthy choice to prevent out-of-wedlock pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.

And it calls for Congress to enhance current government faith-based and community initiatives.

The issue of stem-cell research is mentioned in a section of the platform that reads: “We strongly support the President's policy that prevents taxpayer dollars from being used to encourage the future destruction of human embryos. In addition, we applaud the president's call for a comprehensive ban on human cloning and on the creation of human embryos solely for experimentation.”

The one aspect of the platform that had some pro-life advocates calling it “less than perfect” was that it allows for the use of some existing embryonic stem cells; it also does not call for restrictions on privately funded stem-cell research.

While the platform was written with specific terms, convention speakers — like the Democrats in Boston — skillfully avoided the use of the “A” word.

Prior to the convention, Father Tadeusz Pacholcyzk of the National Catholic Bioethics Center, an expert on stem-cell research, predicted that speeches would not only avoid using the word abortion, but also eschew the “C” word — cloning.

But some of the loudest applause during President Bush's acceptance speech Sept. 2 came when he said, “We must make a place for the unborn child.” Even louder cheers greeted him when he said he supports “the protection of marriage against activist judges.”

First Lady Laura Bush, in an address Aug. 31, extolled the president's position on stem-cell research this way: “I could talk about the fact that my husband is the first president to provide federal funding for stem-cell research,” she said. “He did so in a principled way, allowing science to explore its potential while respecting the dignity of human life.”

Bill Donahue, president of The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, expected that the Republicans would generally steer clear of mentioning the hot-button social issues. “I don't expect any punctuation here, any emphasis on these moral and social issues,” he said, because the Republicans are “looking to affect the undecideds.”

Prime-time speakers such as California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former mayor Rudolph Giuliani seemed to confirm Donahue's hunch.

Schwarzenegger, in his speech Tuesday night, spoke of those who “don't agree with this party on every single issue” but said these individuals could “still be good Americans and good Republicans.”

Steve Wagner isn't so sure that's a bad thing. In 1999, he conducted a poll of Catholic voting behavior for Crisis magazine, showing the difference between self-identified Catholics who no longer practice their faith and Catholics who still go to Mass.

Wagner updated the poll this year and found that respondents still see Bush as “a better representative of Catholic values.”

It also tracked the opinions of undecided voters. “The undecideds have very little positive to say about Kerry,” Wagner said. “They're looking for a reason to vote for Bush.”

Yet some pro-life advocates questioned whether the “widening of the tent” strategy the Republicans apparently are pursuing would turn off pro-family voters.

Prior to a pro-life prayer vigil outside Madison Square Garden Aug. 27, Father Alfred Guthrie of St. Matthias Church in Queens said there is a danger of pro-abortion elements becoming much more prominent in the party. Republicans, he worried, are too concerned about media criticism of any pro-life stand.

The Republican campaign held a number of programs to appeal to Catholic voters, including an event on the last day of the convention which included RNC Chairman Ed Gillespie, Fox News commentator Sean Hannity and Catholic legislators.

Michael Hernon, a councilman in Steubenville, Ohio, said he was impressed with Republican outreach activities in his state. He said that Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas gave talks to Catholic groups throughout Ohio.

Our Saviour Church in Manhattan was chosen as the site of an interfaith prayer service on the morning of the convention's last day, Sept. 2, with President Bush and First Lady Laura Bush in attendance. Father George Rutler, a well-known preacher and writer who is pastor of the Park Avenue church, gave a homily on the divine source of serenity in a storm, such as the terrorist threat the United States continues to face.

“Today, stormy controversies attend questions of biotechnology on the micro level and world politics on the macro level. The answers are not easy, but they are simple: Everything will be fine so long as human rights respect the rights of God,” he said. “The deepest question is, ‘Why did God make you?’ The simplest answer that calms every storm is this: ‘God made me to know him, to love him and to serve him in this world, and to be happy with him for ever in heaven.’”

In an interview, Father Rutler remarked that the president, a devout Christian, “isn't wearing his religion on his sleeve” for the purpose of gathering votes.

Rather, he said, “he is almost forced to bring faith and religion into political discourse because of the kind of issues we are facing today, such as same-sex marriage, stem-cell research, prayer in schools, display of religious principles in public places, abortion, the war in Iraq and the death penalty.”

Two Catholic bishops gave benedictions during the convention. Bishop Emeritus Rene Gracida of Corpus Christi, Texas, after Vice President Dick Cheney's speech Sept. 1, prayed for the guidance of the Holy Spirit on voters, that through their choices they may “strengthen our nation in the service of goodness and truth.”

And Cardinal Edward Egan, archbishop of New York, followed President Bush's acceptance speech and closed the convention with a prayer that God make the American people “holy, as you are holy.”

Steven McDonnell writes from New York.