David Talley
David Prescott Talley was born September 11, 1950, in Columbus, Georgia, and raised Southern Baptist. He converted to Catholicism in 1974 while a college student. He studied at Auburn University, earned a Master of Social Work from the University of Georgia, and worked as a child-protection caseworker before entering seminary. He earned a Master of Divinity from Saint Meinrad Seminary and was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Atlanta on June 3, 1989. From 1993 to 1998 he studied at the Gregorian University in Rome, earning a doctorate in canon law.
In Atlanta he served as judicial vicar, chancellor, and vicar general. Pope Benedict XVI named him auxiliary bishop of Atlanta in late 2012; he was consecrated April 2, 2013. Pope Francis appointed him coadjutor bishop of Alexandria, Louisiana, in 2016, and he succeeded as the 12th Bishop of Alexandria on February 2, 2017.
On March 5, 2019, Pope Francis appointed Talley the sixth Bishop of Memphis, Tennessee; he was installed April 2, 2019, taking over a diocese in turmoil after his predecessor's removal. His episcopal motto is 'Dabo Vobis Cor Novum' ('I will give you a new heart'). Having turned 75 on September 11, 2025, he submitted his resignation under Canon 401, confirmed by the diocese on February 27, 2026. As of mid-2026 the pope has not accepted it, and Talley remains the sitting ordinary of Memphis.
Judged strictly on deeds, Bishop Talley belongs on the friendlier side of the ledger. When Traditionis Custodes (July 16, 2021) empowered bishops to restrict or extinguish the 1962 Missal, many ordinaries used it to shut the old Mass down. Talley did the opposite: he issued a formal dispensation from Article 3.2, expressly 'for the good of the faithful,' keeping the Traditional Latin Mass legally alive at Blessed Sacrament and Saint Theresa Little Flower in Memphis. This is a concrete, documented act of preservation, and it is Memphis/Talley -- not Louisville -- that owns it.
The record is modest rather than crusading. The provision covers two diocesan parishes served by a diocesan priest -- there is no FSSP, ICKSP, or other traditional institute apostolate in the diocese, and no public campaign of advocacy, ad orientem mandates, altar-rail directives, or traditional-sacrament rules attached to his name. Over time the two sites were consolidated (Blessed Sacrament merged into Little Flower), so the footprint has narrowed to essentially one thriving weekly Latin Mass community rather than expanding.
Net verdict: a quiet friend of Tradition. He is a canon lawyer who chose accommodation over suppression at the exact moment suppression was easy and encouraged, and the Memphis TLM survives because of that choice. He is not a public champion of the movement, and with his resignation submitted at 75 (Feb. 2026, not yet accepted) the durability of the arrangement now depends on his successor. But on deeds to date, he sheltered the old rite rather than harming it.