IMMACULATE CONFESSION is a one hour documentary film that chronicles the extraordinary lives of Roman Catholic priests and nuns forced to make a choice between religious celibacy and romantic intimacy.

These featured priests and nuns felt called to dedicate their lives to God. After years of working side-by-side in service to the church, something happened that changed everything: they fell in love. Faced with excommunication, financial ruin, and rejection by family and the religious community, they were forced to make an excruciating decision. Through their stories, this film explores the conflict between loyalty to the Church and acceptance of individual truth, and the difficulty of merging spiritual and sexual identities among the clergy.

Since 1965, over 200,000 Roman Catholic priests and nuns throughout the world have fled the Church, many of them breaking their vows of celibacy for love.

Father Jerry and Sister Marita met during the social and sexual unrest of the 1960s, and left the church to marry and start a family. Father Tom Durkin, a priest turned sex guru, fled to California and Hawaii, where he explored sex, communal living, and Eastern religion. Father John Dee, a conservative priest in Minneapolis, continued to wear the priestly collar and practice traditional Catholic mass in his home even after he broke his vow of celibacy with Sister Louise.

The film was directed by lesbian filmmaker Simone Grudzen, whose parents are featured in the film. While coming to terms with her own sexuality as a teenager, Simone recognized the parallels between her experience and her parents’ struggle to overcome sexual repression within the Catholic clergy. This film is a tribute to the courage of her parents and other former priests and nuns who left their entire lives behind to find fulfillment through romantic love. The film was co-created by sisters Simone and Corita Grudzen.

Directed by Simone Grudzen
Produced by Corita Grudzen
Executive Producers are June Shelley and Julia Halperin
Edited by Jen Gillaspy
Additional Editing by Jesse Kerman
Original Soundtrack Music by John Dee and Simone Grudzen