The Trivialization of St. Charles Borromeo’s Legacy in Conciliar Hagiography
Portal Catholic News Agency reports on St. Charles Borromeo (Nov. 4, 2025) while engaging in characteristic conciliar reductionism, framing this Counter-Reformation giant through modernist lenses of therapeutic spirituality and historical ambiguity. The article speculates about his alleged patronage for obesity (“probably wasn’t obese”) yet omits his radical combat against heresy (militans contra haeresim) that defined his episcopacy.
Distortion of Sanctity Through Psychological Reductionism
The piece obsesses over Borromeo’s purported patronage of “stomach ailments, dieting – and obesity,” admitting these designations are “not mentioned in hagiographies.” This transforms a doctor animarum (doctor of souls) into a therapeutic figure suited for degenerate modernity. St. Charles practiced ascesis heroica – fasting on bread/water, sleeping on boards – yet the article dares suggest dieters might invoke him while admitting “it’s unclear how this particular association began.” Such speculation mocks the imitatio Christi (imitation of Christ) through mortification that defined Borromeo’s life, as recorded in Acta Sanctorum (1610).
“Whether or not his invocation by dieters is appropriate…”
This equivocal phrasing exemplifies the neo-church’s relativism. The 1917 Code of Canon Law (Canon 1276) demands moral certitude for patronages – not folkloric whimsy. Borromeo’s authentic patronage remains catechists (for founding CCD) and plague victims (for ministering during Milan’s pestilence), as Pius XI confirmed in Rerum Omnium Perturbationem (1923).
Erasure of Doctrinal Combativeness
The article reduces the Council of Trent (1545-1563) to bureaucratic “clarification” and “internal reform,” suppressing its anathema sit against Protestant heresies. St. Charles didn’t merely “participate” – he enforced Trent’s decrees with fervor fidei (fervor of faith), establishing seminaries to combat ignorantia clericorum (clerical ignorance). His 1577 Instructiones Fabricae Ecclesiasticae standardized church architecture against Protestant iconoclasm – a fact conspicuously absent.
Where the article mentions Borromeo reforming “lax clergy,” it omits his excommunication of obstinate sinners and public rebuke of the Swiss Guard’s commander for adultery – acts inconceivable in today’s “synodal church.” Leo XIII’s Satis Cognitum (1896) praised Borromeo for understanding that “charity without truth is mere sentimentality” – precisely the error of conciliar “mercy.”
Naturalization of Supernatural Charity
Borromeo’s feeding of 3,000 daily during famine is presented as humanitarianism, ignoring his ex opere operato emphasis. He distributed Communion daily during plague – believing the Eucharist medicina immortalitatis (medicine of immortality) as St. Ignatius taught. The article’s description of his barefoot plague processions misses their expiatory purpose: Borromeo wore a noose declaring himself “a great sinner” worthy of death (Bascapè, Vita Caroli Borromei, 1592).
Symptomatic Omissions
Nowhere does the article mention that:
- Borromeo implemented Trent’s Index of Forbidden Books, burning heretical texts
- He restored the Roman Catechism against Protestant distortions
- His 1582 diocesan synod mandated clerical celibacy and residence – anathema to modernists
The assassination attempt against him (1569) by the lax Humiliati order receives passing mention, yet omits that Borromeo excommunicated them beforehand for refusing reform – echoing Christ’s expulsion of money-changers (John 2:15).
Conclusion: A Saint Weaponized Against Himself
This portrayal exemplifies the conciliar sect’s modus operandi: reduce saints to harmless social workers, stripping them of doctrinal militancy. St. Charles Borromeo – who wrote “better a century of war than a day of heresy” – is repackaged for an obese, therapeutic age. As true Catholics recall his odium haereticorum (hatred of heresy), the neo-church offers diet tips. O tempora, o mores!
Source:
St. Charles Borromeo: Patron saint of stomach ailments, dieting — and obesity? (catholicnewsagency.com)
Article date: 04.11.2025