Taylor Marshall: Learning my Anglican ordination was invalid helped me convert to Catholicism

(LifeSiteNews) — Anglican ministers who believe themselves to be priests need to be told in firm charity that they are not validly ordained, Taylor Marshall has said.

The Catholic commentator, and former Anglican “priest,” offered his comments in the context of controversy surrounding Pope Leo XIV’s meeting with Sarah Mullally, the newly installed “archbishop” of Canterbury.

He warned that true charity cannot include calling an Anglican minister “father” or “priest,” and shared how Bishop James Conley, now the leader of the Diocese of Lincoln, ultimately prompted his conversion.

“When I was an Anglican priest, I would meet Catholic priests who called me ‘Father’ and said things like, ‘I’m praying for your priestly ministry,'” Marshall wrote on X.

But instead of helping Marshall, this action actually hurt him.

“This reinforced for me that I was approved by Catholic clergy and was therefore ‘valid,'” he wrote on X.

“It did terrible damage to my soul and it was very uncharitable of them – although they didn’t intend it,” he wrote. “They confirmed me in my error. This is why I am against fake ecumenism. It set me back.”

When I was an Anglican priest, I would meet Catholic priests who called me “Father” and said things like, “I’m praying for your priestly ministry.”

This reinforced for me that I was approved by Catholic clergy and was therefore “valid”. It did terrible damage to my soul and it… pic.twitter.com/TDwEzyGPVN

— Dr Taylor Marshall™️ (@TaylorRMarshall) April 27, 2026

He then shared his thanks to Conley for his loving rebuke.

“The first Catholic priest who ever challenged me, saying I wasn’t a priest and that I should become a Catholic, was Msgr James Conley, who told me so in a friendly but firm way at a cafe in Rome by St Anne’s Gate in 2006,” the Catholic commentator said. Conley himself was an Anglican at one time.

Pope Leo’s comments confuse Anglicans, Marshall reaffirmed in his commentary.

“My opinion is that Pope Leo (a cradle Catholic) does not fully understand how he is reinforcing Anglican errors by assuming kindness and encouraging their sacerdotal acts,” Marshall said.

“The Anglicans interpret it as ‘full approval and 99% Full Communion,'” he said.

In a follow-up post, Marshall shared that he was initially “offended” by Conley’s comments.

“I was rather shocked that he was skipping the ecumenical niceties and set forth a Newman conversion challenge,” he said, referring to Doctor of the Church St. John Henry Newman, who also converted from Anglicanism.

“While I may have been initially offended by this, I respected [Conley] for avoiding ambiguity and for caring for my soul.”

The invalid nature of Anglican orders was affirmed in 1896 by Pope Leo XIII, in Apostolicae Curae.