The film stars Arkadiusz Jakubik, Robert Więckiewicz and Jacek Braciak as three priests united by an event that almost took their lives.

[2][1] Mike McCahill from The Guardian gave the film three out of five stars, stating: "Controversial in its native Poland, this ambitious drama skilfully shows its clerical cast are as much victims as villains".

However, Lewis also criticized some aspects of the movie: "The characters are a bit thin and their deeper psychological motivations are largely unexplored.

Some of the plot twists and turns become somewhat difficult to follow towards the end and I think perhaps half-an-hour could have been shaved off the running time".

In Poland, Clergy, which explores polemic themes such as child abuse, corruption, and alcoholism in the Catholic Church in Poland, was “highly controversial” upon its release and it was heavily criticized by several right-wing and nationalist groups in the Polish society, including the Polish government that was at the time led by the conservative and pro-clerical party, Law and Justice.