A Call From The Vatican is not just a number from the musical and now hot film Nine—it’s what local artist Stephen Verona received (well actually it was an e-mail) inviting him to take part in  an historic  conclave of artists from around the world with Pope Benedict XVI.

Now back from the two-day November gathering, Verona is still not sure why he was invited by Archbishop Gianfranco Ravisi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture,  for the honor. But he suspects it was because of his body of work.

Known for his paintings, photographs, cutouts and writing, Verona was suggested to the Vatican by one of the dealers he works with. His last show of photographs, “Tripping,” opened in October at DAP Studios in Los Angeles.

Verona was also the writer, director, and producer of the films Boardwalk and The Lords Of Flatbush.  At a book signing and show of photos from the film at Celebrity Vault, Sylvester Stallone, whose career was launched by the film, did an on-camera interview. He said Verona was responsible for creating the character that became Rocky.

“They knew all these things about me,” Verona says.  “There was dossier on the desk of the Pontifical Council for Culture.”

The Vatican said the gathering was intended as the first step a “new and fertile” alliance between art and faith.”  The director of the Vatican museums Antonio Paolucci, said it was hoped it would mark a sort of “reconciliation” with the contemporary art world.

After making sure it didn’t mention Nigeria, Verona printed out the e-mail invitation. “I wanted to feel it. And of course I said I would be there. It was an honor I couldn’t refuse.”

“As part of efforts to heal the Vatican’s sometimes troubled relationship with the contemporary art world,”  the conference began with a tour of the Vatican Museum Contemporary Collection. Having lived in Rome, Verona, had of course been to the Vatican, but never as a recognized artist and part of a small, private personal tour.  “I had a camera over my shoulder with a big zoom lens, a photo camera and a point-and-shoot on my hip. I was never asked not to take pictures; and they had to know they were inviting visual artists. And photography is my passion.”

The tour ended in the Sistine Chapel- “with 30 other people, no tourists pushing and shoving and the lights up.” Verona was able to get a picture on his camera phone.

At a cocktail reception and dinner, Verona met and spoke with some of his 200 fellow honorees who each received a medal with raised relief images of the pope on one side and the Sistine Chapel on the other. They included.

•Bill Viola, who just got a commission from the Vatican to do a video installation in St Peter’s Basilica.

•Tenor Andrea Bocelli—“I took a picture of him with his wife and children. His wife asked me to e-mail it to her.”

•Famed Italian architect Renzo Piano, architect.

•Daniel Libeskind, who is designing the new World Trade Center and  finished  the Las Vegas City Center.

•Film score composer Ennio  Marricone,  known best for his work with director Sergio Leone.

•Polish film producer Krzysztof  Zanussi, who served on an art board with the previous pope. “I’m on the Academy’s foreign language committee and I hadn’t heard of him,” Verona said. “I saw on IMBD that he’s produced 80 films.”

• Avant-garde stage director Robert Wilson, known for his collaborations with composer Philip Glass like Einstein On The Beach.

In his hour -long address, the first time the pope has hosted artists in the Sistine Chapel since the Renaissance, the pontiff told the artists that had been given a gift to make beauty.  “The experience was  affirming, chilling and humbling at the same time,” Verona said.

“The Sistine Chapel is ground zero for artists,” Verona added. “So to be there with those incredible artists and the pope look up and see him center under  The Creation was impressive and validating.”