My guess would be that he was identifying Mary the sister of Lazarus with Mary Magdalene. It would be an educated guess to try to link the various Mary’s and unidentified women in the Gospels together as one person. Lazarus was in Bethany, so why would Mary be called Magdalene (i.e. from Magdala). Bethany was in Judea while Magdala was in Galilee.
Western Christian tradition had identified Mary the sister of Lazarus with Mary Magdalene, however Eastern Christian tradition did not.
The idea that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute was part of early Western Christian tradition’s conflating of various figures in the Gospels. However there is little direct evidence that this is definitive and Mary Magdalene is never directly identified as such.
What the priest said is rooted in Western Christian tradition, however it is highly debated today.
