By BOB CAMPBELL

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," and 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 slightly misjudged the form it would take. The film opens nationally today.

Grabbing a late breakfast and a morning cigarette at the Manhattan offices of Lions Gate Films, he shrugs innocently.

"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."

The film's religious slant, say supporters, places it in an honored church tradition of "self-criticism." Nevertheless, Smith's movie was quickly slapped with the tag "anti-Catholic."

"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'd 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. This young, ambitious company had already released Oscar winners "Affliction" and "Gods and Monsters."

"Disney was unbelievably happy to see us go," Smith recalls.

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.

"But," he points out, "if it weren't for the scandal we wouldn't have gotten to release it."

Though Smith's "Dogma" Web site (www.dogma-movie.com/) still features a "Hate Letter of the Week," ranging from the politely critical to the murderous and/or anti-Semitic (aimed at the Weinsteins), Urman notes that Lions Gate itself has received no protests.

He 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.'"

"In its sneaky way," Urman says, "it's really pro-faith."

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 Red Bank, N.J., cathedral.

For complex theological reasons, exiled angels played by Matt Damon ("Good Will Hunting") and Ben Affleck ("Armageddon") 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 a lapsed-Catholic abortion clinician (Fiorentino) to take up His cause.

Gradually, Fiorentino's puzzled 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.

Urman realistically cautions: "The people who don't like obscenities and dirty jokes won't like 'Dogma.' They wouldn't like it even if it were just called 'Dog Food.'"

Smith acknowledges that "some people won't be able to get past the profanity."

But co-star Lee respectfully sums up the underlying story as "a woman's journey from jaded non-believer to regaining her belief in faith and herself."

Irreverent though the plot may sound, it entails belief in miracles, angelic visitations, divine grace and papal infallibility. Few 29-year-old filmmakers would even glance at these themes, let alone set out to re-express them in modern terms.

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

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

Smith commands his own international congregation on the Internet, and "Dogma" has stirred up the liveliest Internet buzz since "The Blair Witch Project."

But even on his youth-oriented Web site, Smith has refrained from criticizing the church or any of its representatives. Ironically, the enfant terrible turns out to be rather conservative himself.

"I don't understand why nobody went after 'Stigmata,' " he complains, characterizing that recent MGM shocker as "truly anti-Catholic."

Smith also looks askance at playwright Terrence McNally's hotly debated drama "Corpus Christi," which gives a gay coloration to the Gospel story.

"The central figure of Christianity as some kind of homosexual?" Smith says worriedly. "I don't know about that. But I wouldn't say anything about the play without seeing it."

For his affront to Jesus, a prophet honored in the Koran, McNally has been targeted for a "fatwah" (death sentence) by an Islamic group in London, where the play recently opened. Since Smith's movie doesn't directly portray any of the Judeo-Christian figures (Jesus, Moses) hailed as Mohammed's precursors, he feels reasonably safe from Muslim vengeance.

Of course, he admits, he's been wrong before in predicting reactions to "Dogma."

"I never even considered making Jesus a character in 'Dogma,' " he explains wistfully. "I wouldn't want to see him surrounded by anything gross or tasteless. Without him in it, I figured, the movie couldn't give any offense. I thought I was covered."