T-sql Try Catch - Using Triggers And Nested Stored Procedures

For every trigger and stored procedure I have a try-catch that writes to an error_log table.
The problem is the inner error is not preserved, always get:
The current transaction cannot be committed and cannot support operations that write to the log file. Roll back the transaction.

As seen below - though commented out:
I tried commiting any transactions - though I didn't create one.
I played with the
XACT_STATE though that was 0
My test case was last procedure has 1/0

Thanks,
Russ
-----------------------------------------------------------

Below is what I have

Step 1)

ALTER Trigger [trg_ActivityLogEntryReportsError] ON [dbo].[ActivityLog]
FOR INSERT AS

DECLARE @ActivityLogID int
,@AlertMessageTypeID int
,@comment nvarchar(max)
,@Error_Source nvarchar(max)
--- etc.
SELECT
@ActivityLogID = ActivityLogID
,@AlertMessageTypeID = AlertMessageTypeID
,@Comment = Comment
FROM INSERTED
BEGIN TRY

if @AlertMessageTypeID = 2 -- activity reported an error
begin
exec proc_CreateAlertLogEntry_forError
@ActivityLogID
,@Comment

update ActivityLog
set flgActivityChecked = 1
where @activityLogId = activityLogID
end
END TRY


BEGIN CATCH
select
@Error_Source = 'trg_ActivityLogEntryReportsError '
,@Error_Procedure = ERROR_Procedure()
--- etc.
INSERT INTO ERROR_LOG
( Error_Source
,Error_Procedure
,Error_Message
--- etc.
)
VALUES
(
@Error_Source
,@Error_Procedure
,@Error_Message
---etc.
,@Error_Comment )
-- if @@TRANCOUNT > 0
--begin
--commit
--end
END CATCH

Step 2)

/*
This will be called by a Trigger
*/
ALTER Procedure [dbo].[proc_CreateAlertLogEntry_forError]
(@ActivityLogID int
,@Comment nvarchar(max))
AS

Declare
@ProcessScheduleID int
,@ProcessID int
--,@comment nvarchar(max)
,@Error_Source nvarchar(max)
---etc
BEGIN TRY
insert into AlertLog
(
AlertMessageTypeID
,comment
,ActivityLogID
)
values
(
2 -- error
,@comment
,@ActivityLogID
)

end

END TRY


BEGIN CATCH
PRINT 'ERROR OCCURED'
PRINT ERROR_Procedure() + ' ' + ERROR_MESSAGE()
select
@Error_Source = 'proc_CreateAlertLogEntry_forError '
---etc.
INSERT INTO ERROR_LOG
( Error_Source
,Error_Procedure
,Error_Message
---etc.
)
VALUES
(
@Error_Source
,@Error_Procedure
,@Error_Message
--- etc.)

-- if @@TRANCOUNT > 0
--begin
--commit
--end
END CATCH

update ActivityLog
set
flgActivityChecked = 1
,UpdatedDate = getdate()
,UpdatedBy = suser_sname()
where
ActivityLogID = @ActivityLogID


STEP 3

ALTER Trigger [trg_AlertLogEntry_SendsOnInsert] ON [dbo].[AlertLog]
FOR INSERT AS

declare
@AlertLogID Int
,@AlertMessageTypeID int
,@Comment nvarchar(max)
,@Error_Source nvarchar(max)
,@Error_Procedure nvarchar(max)
,@Error_Message nvarchar(max)
--- etc.
SELECT
@AlertLogID = AlertLogID
,@AlertMessageTypeID = AlertMessageTypeID
,@Comment = isnull(Comment,'')
,@ActivityLogID = isnull(ActivityLogID,-1)
FROM INSERTED

BEGIN TRY

PRINT 'trg_AlertLogEntry_SendsOnInsert'
PRINT @COMMENT
exec proc_SendEmail
@AlertLogID
,@AlertMessageTypeID
,@comment
,@ActivityLogID


END TRY


BEGIN CATCH

select
@Error_Source = 'trg_AlertLogEntry_SendsOnInsert '
,@Error_Procedure = ERROR_Procedure()
,@Error_Message = ERROR_MESSAGE()
--- etc.
INSERT INTO ERROR_LOG
( Error_Source
,Error_Procedure
-- etc.)
VALUES
(
@Error_Source
,@Error_Procedure
,@Error_Message
---etc.)
-- if @@TRANCOUNT > 0
--begin
--commit
--end
END CATCH



STEP 4

ALTER Procedure [dbo].[proc_SendEmail]
(
@AlertLogID Int
,@AlertMessageTypeID int
,@Comment nvarchar(max) = ''
,@ActivityLogID int = -1
)


AS

declare @AlertSubject nvarchar(512)
,@AlertBody nvarchar(max)
,@myQuery nvarchar(512)
,@profile_name1 nvarchar(128)
,@return_value int
,@mymailitem int
,@Error_Source nvarchar(max)
---etc.
,@Error_Comment nvarchar(max)
,@Test int
/*
@return_value int -- not using at this point but 0 is OK 1 is failure
@mymailitem int -- not using now could store mailitem_id which is on msdb.dbo.sysmail_mailitems
sysmail_mailitems.sent_status could be either 0 new, not sent, 1 sent, 2 failure or 3 retry.
*/

select top 1 @profile_name1 = [name] from msdb.dbo.sysmail_profile
order by profile_id

set @profile_name1 = rtrim(ltrim(@profile_name1))
print '@profile_name1: ' + @profile_name1
print '@comment: ' + @comment
Declare @CrsrRecipient Cursor

BEGIN TRY
PRINT 'proc_SendEmail'
--set @test = 1/0 'test crashing
select
@AlertSubject = 'AlertSubject'
,@AlertBody = 'AlertBody'

,@recipients = 'russ@test.com'


print 'sending email ' + CAST(getdate() as nvarchar(100))
EXEC @return_value = msdb.dbo.sp_send_dbmail
@profile_name = @profile_name1
,@recipients = @EMAILID
,@body = @AlertBody
,@subject = @AlertSubject
,@mailitem_id = @mymailitem OUTPUT

print 'Done ' + CAST(getdate() as nvarchar(100))
print cast(@return_value as nvarchar(100))



update alertlog
set AlertSendStatusID = 1 --sent
where
@AlertLogID = AlertLogID

END TRY

BEGIN CATCH
PRINT 'ERROR OCCURED'
PRINT ERROR_Procedure() + ' ' + ERROR_MESSAGE()
select
@Error_Source = ' proc_SendEmail '
,@Error_Procedure = ERROR_Procedure()
--- etc.
INSERT INTO ERROR_LOG
( Error_Source
,Error_Procedure
---etc.)
VALUES
(
@Error_Source
,@Error_Procedure
,@Error_Message
--- etc.)


update alertlog
set AlertSendStatusID = 2 --error
where
@AlertLogID = AlertLogID

--if @@TRANCOUNT > 0
--begin
--commit
--end
END CATCH