EWTN News portal reports on the journey of Scott Borba, founder of e.l.f. Cosmetics, who left his fortune to become a deacon and soon-to-be “priest” in the Diocese of Fresno, California. The article presents his story as a model of conversion and vocational response, complete with the expected narrative of worldly emptiness and spiritual fulfillment. Yet beneath the veneer of a heartwarming tale lies a profound illustration of the theological and spiritual bankruptcy of the post-conciliar sect, where even a “conversion” serves only to reinforce the structures of apostasy.
The “Call” That Reinforces the Abomination
The narrative presented is deceptively simple: a man of wealth feels empty, discovers God, and leaves everything to serve the Church. Scott Borba claims he felt a calling to the “priesthood” at age 10, “ran away,” then experienced a “conversion” at 40, leading him to donate his fortune and enter St. Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park. He will be ordained a “priest” on May 23 (presumably 2026, though the article’s internal chronology is confused, stating ordination “will be” on May 31, 2026, while the article date is May 20, 2026).
The first and most glaring omission is the nature of the “Church” Borba is entering. It is not the Catholic Church of immutable Tradition, but the conciliar sect, the “Church of the New Advent,” which has systematically dismantled the faith since 1958. His “conversion” is not to the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, but to a modernist structure that has emptied the priesthood of its sacrificial character and reduced the Mass to a “table of assembly.” As the Defense of Sedevacantism file makes clear, the post-conciliar hierarchy, having embraced heresy, has lost all jurisdiction. The “ordination” Borba anticipates is not the conferral of the sacred powers of the Catholic priesthood—to offer the Unbloody Sacrifice of Calvary and confect the true Body and Blood of Christ—but initiation into a “priesthood” that is, in reality, a Protestantized ministry of the Word and community gathering. To present this as a triumph of grace is to mistake the desert for the oasis.
The Hermeneutic of Continuity in Action: “Recalibrating” Life with Modernism
Borba’s language is saturated with the therapeutic, self-help jargon of the modern world, seamlessly blended with the tepid spirituality of post-conciliarism. He speaks of a “very big conversion” at 40, of wanting to “recalibrate my life with him,” and of asking God to “help me be the man you created me to be.” This is not the language of a Saint Francis of Assisi renouncing his father’s wealth, nor of a Saint Ignatius of Loyola laying down his sword at Montserrat. It is the language of a self-improvement seminar, a spiritualized version of corporate coaching. The goal is not the glory of God and the salvation of souls through the rigorous demands of the Gospel, but personal fulfillment and “peace.”
His description of the catalyst—a house party where he felt “lonely, empty, and unloved” despite material wealth—is a textbook example of the modernist reduction of the supernatural to the psychological. The true cause of his emptiness was not merely the absence of material satisfaction but the absence of God’s grace, the state of sin, and the lack of the true sacraments. Yet the article, and Borba himself, frame it as a personal crisis resolved by a subjective “experience” of God’s “love and mercy.” This is the “cult of man” condemned by Pascendi Dominici gregis (St. Pius X, 1907), where religion becomes a means for human fulfillment rather than the objective worship of the Most Blessed Trinity. The focus is on his feelings, his journey, his peace—not on the objective truths of the Faith, the reality of sin, the necessity of the true sacraments, or the eternal damnation that awaits those outside the true Church.
The “Charity” That Ignores the Supernatural
Borba’s act of donating his fortune to charity is presented as a key step in his journey. He recounts selling a luxury car and seeing “how it could affect people’s lives with positive change — helping with the poverty and the homelessness.” While corporal works of mercy are indeed part of the Catholic life, in the context of the post-conciliar sect, they are severed from their supernatural end. True Catholic charity is ordered towards the salvation of souls and the glory of God, recognizing that the greatest poverty is the lack of faith and grace. The conciar sect, however, reduces charity to social work, a naturalistic humanism that ignores the primary mission of the Church: to teach, govern, and sanctify souls for eternity.
By donating to secular charities and entering a seminary that forms “priests” for a church that denies the necessity of conversion to the Catholic faith for salvation (as per Dignitatis Humanae), Borba’s “generosity” is ultimately directed towards structures that perpetuate spiritual blindness. He has not given his wealth to the true Church—which, in these times of the “abomination of desolation,” endures in the faithful who profess the integral Catholic faith and are led by bishops with valid sacraments—but to the very system that has emptied the world of the true presence of Christ. This is not the radical detachment of the saints but a transfer of resources from one form of worldliness (cosmetics) to another (modernist “ministry”).
The Seminary: Formation in Apostasy
St. Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park is not a bastion of Catholic orthodoxy but a factory for producing “priests” in the image of the conciliar revolution. The formation there is based on the theology of the Second Vatican Council, which introduced the errors of ecumenism, religious freedom, and the collegiality that undermines the papal primacy. To enter such a seminary is not to “unite to [God’s] will” but to submit to the will of the modernist hierarchy. The “little tiny room” Borba describes is not the poverty of Christ but the asceticism of a system that demands conformity to its novelties.
The article quotes Borba: “You can’t fit everything in there, so you have to make a decision to hold onto it or not. And the seminary gives you the opportunity to figure that out — to either unite to his will or not.” This is a chilling statement when understood correctly. The “will” he is uniting with is not the immutable will of God as taught by the perennial Magisterium but the ever-evolving “spirit” of the conciliar church. The “decision” is not between the world and Christ, but between the world and a counterfeit Christ, a “god” who is merely a projection of human aspirations.
The “Priesthood” of the Conciliar Sect: A Counterfeit Calling
The culmination of Borba’s journey is his anticipated “ordination” to the “priesthood.” But what is this “priesthood”? It is not the Catholic priesthood, which is a participation in the one priesthood of Christ, conferred through the Sacrament of Holy Orders as defined by the Council of Trent. The post-conciliar “priesthood” is a ministry focused on community building, social justice, and ecumenical dialogue—not on the propitiatory sacrifice of the Mass, the forgiveness of sins in the confessional, or the salvation of souls through preaching the fullness of Catholic truth.
As the False Fatima Apparitions file notes, the conciliar sect has diminished the efficacy of the Holy Mass in favor of “spectacular acts” and external threats, while ignoring the “main danger: modernist apostasy within the Church.” Borba’s “priesthood” will be exercised within this very apostasy. He will not offer the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass as taught by the Council of Trent and the perennial tradition, but the “Novus Ordo Missae,” a rite that, as the Defense of Sedevacantism file implies, is a departure from the Catholic theology of the propitiatory sacrifice. His “ordination” is not a sacrament conferring grace but a ceremony marking his entry into a system of spiritual ruin.
The Omission of the True Church
Perhaps the most damning aspect of the article is its complete silence about the true state of the Catholic Church. There is no mention of the crisis of faith, the loss of the sense of the sacred, the heresies promulgated by the conciliar popes, or the necessity of adhering to the pre-conciliar Magisterium. The “Church” Borba is joining is presented as the only Church, the legitimate continuation of the Apostolic Church. This is the “hermeneutic of continuity” in its most pernicious form—the pretense that the conciar sect is the same Church that has existed for two millennia, despite its radical break with doctrine, worship, and discipline.
The article encourages readers to “not give up” if they feel God’s call, assuring them that “if we orient ourselves to God right now, he takes care of everything for us.” But this “God” is not the God of Catholic revelation, who demands faith in His Son, membership in His Church, and obedience to His commandments. It is a “god” of the modernist imagination, a benevolent force that “takes care” of those who “orient” themselves to him, regardless of whether they profess the true faith or belong to the true Church. This is the “indifferentism” condemned by Pope Pius IX in the Syllabus of Errors (1864), which rejects the necessity of the Catholic religion for salvation.
Conclusion: A Journey into the Desert
Scott Borba’s story, as presented by EWTN News, is not a tale of conversion but a parable of the conciliar sect’s ability to co-opt even the most dramatic life changes into its narrative of self-justification. His journey from cosmetics to “priesthood” is not a renunciation of the world but a transfer of allegiance from one form of worldliness to another. He has not found the true Church but has been absorbed into the very system that has emptied the world of the true presence of Christ.
The article’s tone is one of celebration, but the reality is one of profound spiritual tragedy. Borba’s “peace” is not the peace of Christ, which the world cannot give (John 14:27), but the false peace of a system that has made its peace with the world. His “calling” is not to the Catholic priesthood but to a counterfeit ministry that serves the “abomination of desolation” (Matt. 24:15). And his “conversion” is not to the true God but to a “god” fashioned in the image of modern man.
In the end, the story of Scott Borba is a stark reminder of the depths of the current crisis. It is a call not to admire but to weep—for Borba, for the souls he will “serve,” and for a world that has lost the true faith. The only true response is to reject the conciliar sect, return to immutable Tradition, and pray for the restoration of the true Church, outside of which there is no salvation.
Source:
From e.l.f. Cosmetics to the Catholic priesthood: The unlikely journey of Scott Borba (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 20.05.2026