"I'm a regular Sunday churchgoer," Kevin Smith says matter-of-factly. "I make confession maybe once a year."

"I'm probably about due," adds the writer-director of "Dogma," which opens Friday. He grins. "But not for the reasons some people might think."

When the New Jersey-based independent filmmaker ("Clerks," "Chasing Amy") began shooting his neo-Catholic apocalypse comedy in the spring of 1998, he correctly foresaw a controversy. But he misjudged the form it would take.

"I thought the critics and my fans would groan, "What happened to the guy who made "Clerks"? How could he make this unflinchingly pro-faith movie? What's funny about that?' "

Instead, the bearded, affable auteur, familiar from his movies as the running character "Silent Bob," found himself cast as a media Antichrist.

Alerted to the movie's upcoming release, right-wing religious organizations spearheaded by the publicity-savvy Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights sniffed blasphemy.

Before the movie had even been screened, a minor holy war was declared against production company Miramax and its embarrassed corporate parent, Walt Disney. Though "Dogma" had been independently produced by Miramax, Disney provided the biggest, fattest target for organized Catholic pressure.

Cast and creators say they were shocked by accusations of anti-religious bias.

Linda Fiorentino, who plays a reluctant American messiah named Bethany, says (through her publicist) that what first attracted her to the script was its "imaginative answers to all my childhood questions about angels and devils and the apostles and all that stuff."

Smith regular Jason Lee

("Mallrats," "Chasing Amy"), whose demonic Azrael is "Dogma's" incarnation of evil, says, "What impressed me the most was Kevin's grasp of theology."

"We're not talking about the fallibility of God," Smith says earnestly, "just the foibles of those who claim to represent him. Actually, the idea is "Church good - God better.' "

Smith now believes that the hostile publicity campaign was aimed more at image-conscious Disney and uninhibited Miramax than his particular movie. The Catholic League had Miramax/Disney in its sights ever since the studio released its gay-themed drama "Priest" in 1994. Smith felt he had handed a useful weapon to organizations that considered Disney's policies too "liberal."

The storm began to blow over after an upbeat critical response to early screenings. But Miramax chiefs Harvey and Bob Weinstein spared their company and Disney from further assault by personally buying up the rights to Smith's movie and reselling them to the less anxiety-prone Lions Gate, a young, ambitious company that had already released Oscar winners "Affliction" and "Gods and Monsters."

Lions Gate releasing Co-president Mark Urman has mixed feelings about the flap. "There is such a thing as bad controversy," he says, "and it's no fun being placed on the defensive"

Urman and Smith feel that screenings of the completed film have disarmed the crusaders. An objective viewing supports Smith's claim to have made "an entertainment movie designed to make [young- people think a little bit about faith. A Christian "Ghostbusters.' "

Smith's $10 million production tracks a group of holy, unholy and human beings set to converge at the inauguration of a revamped, upbeat, Vatican-approved, 21st century creed called "Catholicism WOW!" at a cathedral in Red Bank, N.J.

For complex theological reasons, exiled angels played by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck must be prevented from partaking. If they enter the church, it will reverse the order of existence and invalidate all creation.

God (Bud Cort and Alanis Morissette, at different times) has been incapacitated by demonic forces. Angel Alan Rickman chooses Bethany, a lapsed Catholic abortion clinician to take up God's cause.

Gradually, Bethany comes to realize that she is a distant genetic descendant of Christ's family. This unbeliever is the only messiah at hand. On her quest, she encounters gory violence, crass slapstick and outrageous special effects.

Irreverent though the plot might sound, it entails belief in miracles, angelic visitations, divine grace and papal infallibility.

Traditional Catholic groups that have viewed the film are divided as to its quality and worth, Smith says.

"Some of them thinks it's stupid and juvenile," Smith, 29, says frankly. "But not one person found it anti-religious."