Fox, originally named Timothy James, was born in Madison, Wisconsin. He entered the Order of Preachers (the Dominicans) where he was given the name Matthew, his "name in religion". Fox was ordained to the priesthood in the Roman Catholic Church in 1967. He received masters degrees in both philosophy and theology from the Aquinas Institute of Theology and later earned a Ph.D. in spirituality (summa cum laude) from the Institut Catholique de Paris. Due to his controversial teachings he was forbidden to teach theology by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) of the Holy See in 1988 and in 1992 he was dismissed from the Dominican order. He was received in 1994 into the Episcopal Church (Anglican Communion) by Bishop William Swing of the Episcopal Diocese of California.[citation needed]