Michelangelo. Raphael. Bernini. These are the revered artists people have traditionally associated with the Catholic Church.

Now a growing group of film aficionados in the Los Angeles area is associating artists like Orson Welles, Stanley Kubrick and Federico Fellini with the Vatican as well.

Led by Ron Lawson, 38, a free-lance graphic designer and an earnest amateur film buff, the Vatican Film Festival brings Catholics together to view and discuss each of the 45 films on the Vatican's list of great movies. (The Vatican released the list in 1995, on the centenary of the film industry's inception, culling selections from what it considered to be the top 15 films in each of three different categories — art, values and religion.)

“I thought it would be good to take a look at the films that the Vatican thought were notable,” Lawson says. “It's an impressive list. It's a great thing seeing films you wouldn't otherwise see.”

Inspired while taking a screen-writing class, Lawson inaugurated the festival during Lent of 2001 with a screening of Ingmar Bergman's classic meditation on mortality, The Seventh Seal (a Vatican “values” selection). “It's an incredibly challenging and well-crafted film where man questions God. ‘I can't believe — but will believe,’” Lawson explains.

Lawson promotes the festival throughout Southern California via e-mail and word-of-mouth. Each screening is held at a private home and attracts an average of 20 to 25 people. Following the success of the Bergman screening, Lawson's group presented William Wyler's Ben Hur (“religion”), Disney's Fantasia (“art”) and 2001: A Space Odyssey (“art”), directed by the late Stanley Kubrick. Lawson says the group plans to present around six movies in 2002.

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“There's a great contrast among the films, which makes for an interesting project, too,” Lawson says. “Think of the difference between 2001 and its view of the world, man and his future and the heroic witness that Ben-Hur is all about.”

Disney animator Bill Waldman, 38, heard about the festival from a friend and attended the screening of The Seventh Seal. He enjoyed it so much that he agreed to host the presentation of Disney's classic animated feature Fantasia.

“Some people wondered why Fantasia was on the list,” Waldman says. “I don't think they realized that it was in the ‘art’ category. Fantasia is the first time they combined animation with classical music. Artistically, it was a bold statement.”

Susana Santana, 28, programming coordinator at Latino Public Broadcasting in Hollywood, learned of the festival from a Southern California young-adult group called The Catholic Chihuahuas. She came away from the screening of Ben Hur impressed both with the film and the festival's mission.

“I had never seen Ben Hur before,” she says. “It was good to see so many people watching it not just to be entertained, but looking for something deeper because it was on the [Vatican] list. It's interesting because [in Ben Hur] you see Jesus' life from the perspective of someone outside of his followers. Throughout the film, you hear people talking about Jesus. You don't see him, but the characters are influenced by his actions.”

Barbara Nicolosi, director of Act One, a screenwriting program for Christians in Hollywood, and a screenwriter herself, says she believes the festival is “a great idea. Most people don't know the Vatican issued a list.”

Although Nicolosi laments the list's somewhat “erratic” selections and its relative short-changing of American cinema, she admires what the Vatican is doing. “Clearly the Church is pointing us to this art form as the primary art form of the day,” she says. “It's unprecedented that the Vatican did this. It shows that the Church takes interest not just in religious practice, but in every aspect of human life.”

Santana and Waldman both look forward to attending future screenings. One festival enthusiast, Catherine McCabe, 30, a librarian at Thomas Aquinas College, is particularly eager to see Babette's Feast and Nosferatu, two films she has heard much about but has never seen.

Lawson himself is excited about showing Francesco, which stars Mickey Rourke as St. Francis of Assisi. “Francesco is a challenging presentation of St. Francis' life,” Lawson adds. “It's not Brother Sun, Sister Moon.”

Nicolosi encourages Catholics to view the films with an inquiring mind. “One thing Catholics could look for is why the Church put this or that movie on the list,” she adds. “Why would the Church [urge] me to watch this movie?”

Martin Mazloom writes from Los Angeles.

Editor's note: For the complete list of the Vatican's favorite 45 films, go to www.nccbuscc.org/fb/vatican-films.htm or call the U.S. Bishops' film and broadcasting office at (212) 644-1880.