Originally published at National Catholic Register
An off-Broadway theater in Manhattan has closed down after its landlord — the Archdiocese of New York — began exercising greater scrutiny over the plays performed there to ensure they were in line with Catholic teaching.
The New York-based art group SheNYC said in a press release on Tuesday that the archdiocese had recently imposed “strict content guidelines” on the plays performed at the Connelly Theater in Manhattan’s East Village.
The Connelly Theater is housed within the Cornelia Connelly Center, a Catholic girls school. SheNYC said in its release that the archdiocese “has directed the theater to deny the space to any shows or companies that would be seen as inappropriate by the Catholic Church,” including shows about abortion and transgenderism.
“The priest in charge of the jurisdiction is personally screening scripts to ensure they fit within strictly Catholic doctrines,” the group said.
The New York Times on Wednesday reported that theater manager Josh Luxenberg resigned from his post last week amid the dispute. The Connelly Center, meanwhile, reportedly announced on Tuesday that it was “suspending all operations of its theater.”
New York Archdiocese spokesman Joe Zwilling told CNA in a statement on Wednesday: “It is the standard practice of the archdiocese that nothing should take
