What Catholic Twitter Taught Me About Myself

March 22, 2021 By Emily Claire Schmitt

In early 2019, I started following more Catholics on Twitter. It was an intentional decision. Most of my community in the arts and entertainment world is highly secular, and I was feeling isolated. I thought, naïvely, that following more Catholics online would lessen the sense that everyone disagreed with me. At the time, I was completely unaware of the bizarre internet niche called Weird Catholic Twitter. I didn’t know about trads and modernists. I’d never heard the term Novus Ordo. What... Read more

Returning to Live Theater… Sort of

March 15, 2021 By Emily Claire Schmitt

Last Saturday was the one-year anniversary of the Broadway shut down. Performers took to the streets in Times Square for impromptu performances, promising that they will be back soon. It was an inspiring moment, but it wasn’t entirely honest. The most hopeful predictions place Broadway’s reopening at a limited capacity some time in September. The lights are flickering, but they’re far from on. Meanwhile, I’m writing this blog post on a break between rehearsals of a workshop of my musical The... Read more

The Royal Family is Not Special, Yet We Make Them So

March 8, 2021 By Emily Claire Schmitt

If you didn’t watch Oprah’s interview with Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan last night, you were likely doing everything in your power to avoid it. Turn off social media, avoid the news, definitely avoid blogs, and refuse to speak to anyone for a couple days and – if you’re lucky – you might avoid being forced to engage with the royal family. Otherwise, congratulations, you’ve found more royal family content! To be honest, I feel like slapping myself for caring, for... Read more

Self-Righteousness, the Devil’s Poisoned Arrow

February 28, 2021 By Emily Claire Schmitt

During my Lenten reading, I recently came across a passage from John Tauler, a 14th-century German mystic. Although written centuries ago, the words felt strikingly modern. He spoke to one of my own greatest failings, and what may be the defining sin of the contemporary era: self-righteousness. The belief that we are more enlightened, more moral, and more just than than others pervades contemporary discourse. The natural consequence of this is a decline in love for one’s neighbor. John Tauler... Read more

Inhumane Conditions in Texas Prisons Demonstrate Cruelty is the Point

February 21, 2021 By Emily Claire Schmitt

A devastating storm and freezing temperatures have caused chaos and hardship for millions of people across the state of Texas. People have been without food and water, and even children have frozen to death in their own homes. Amidst all this hardship, it’s perhaps not surprising that the most forgotten subset of society – inmates in prisons – have been effectively abandoned. But the abysmal conditions inside Texas prisons during this crisis demonstrate what many have been arguing for some... Read more

Consider Making a Gentle Lent this Year

February 15, 2021 By Emily Claire Schmitt

It’s hard to believe that Lent has come around again. Last year, I gave up alcohol entirely, a significant sacrifice for a wine enthusiast like myself. When coronavirus arrived with a vengeance last March, I thought it would be over by Easter. I was wrong. It’s a full year later, and we’re still giving up friends, family, weddings, holidays, pastimes, and nights out. And now Lent is back. So what do we do for Lent in a year where we’ve... Read more

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back: The Challenge of Representation

February 8, 2021 By Emily Claire Schmitt

This past weekend was a significant landmark for me professionally. My first credited TV movie aired! I was the third writer on a project that was already largely complete when I came into it, but I did enough character and dialogue work to earn a writing credit. During my time with the script, one of the major characters was re-written as a gay man. In the year 2021, this did not seem like a big deal to me. So I... Read more

Has the Pandemic Permanently Changed Live Theater?

February 1, 2021 By Emily Claire Schmitt

When I started this blog, I intended to write about life as a Catholic theater artist in New York. Now, you’d be hard pressed to identify me as a playwright without reading my bio. Theater has been shut down for a year. My theater company has just planned our virtual season for 2021. I have mixed feelings about it. Theater artists have managed to create some innovative work over the past year. Online streaming of readings and airings of live... Read more

Sorry ACNA, We’re Calling Ourselves Gay

January 25, 2021 By Emily Claire Schmitt

Last week, the bishops of the Anglican Church of North America released a pastoral statement on sexuality and identity. The overall thesis of the letter is that gay Christians should not call themselves, well, gay Christians. Now, I’m Roman Catholic not Anglican, but I’ve encountered many of these same arguments, including from members of my own family. The ACNA believes that calling ourselves gay (or lesbian or bisexual) undermines our primary identity as children of God. In other words, gay identity... Read more

Doubt is Part of Faith, So Why Is It So Difficult to Talk About?

January 19, 2021 By Emily Claire Schmitt

When I was a child, my beloved great-grandmother passed away. She was the first person I knew who died, and I struggled to wrap my head around the meaning of it all. What did it mean to no longer be here? I was a highly imaginative child and also a highly religious child, so I did what was natural to me: I imagined a religious story. I told my family that Grandma had appeared in my bedroom, rocking on her rocking chair.... Read more