“it was Pope Gregory who started with the her being a prostitute myth.”
Thanks. I’ve wondered where that legend began. I thought maybe Aesop, but pope works, too.
See my #52. Pope Gregory said no such thing.
The erroneous idea that Mary Magdalene was the "penitent woman" who washed Jesus' feet with her tears didn't actually start with Pope Gregory's sermon, but was already a common belief at the the time that he was repeating it. Catholic biblical scholars today recognize this conflations of the two Marys is not correct, and the Church (back in the 1960's) removed the title "penitent" from her feast day.
Though his facts may not have been accurate, he was not attempting to destroy Mary Magdalene, but to praise her as a model of penitence. In the meantime, we should note that however great the authority of Pope Gregory, his teaching about Mary Magdalene was not infallible, nor was it issued in an encyclical or a papal bull. It was never defined as Catholic dogma nor upheld as sacred doctrine by an ecumenical council.