[3] After attending Catholic elementary and high school, he began his studies for the priesthood at Saint Meinrad's Seminary in 1932.

[4] He transferred to the Archdiocese of New Orleans in Louisiana in 1936 after Archbishop Joseph Rummel made an appeal for priests and seminarians.

[1] He then served as an associate pastor at Sacred Heart Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana until 1943, when he enlisted in the U.S. Army Chaplain Corps during World War II.

During an attack on a German position near Florence in 1944, Borders carried a wounded American soldier to safety while under machine gun fire, for which he was awarded the Bronze Star for Valor.

He briefly served as an associate pastor at Our Lady of Prompt Succor Church in Westwego, Louisiana before pursuing a graduate degree at the University of Notre Dame in his native Indiana.

He was raised to the rank of Domestic Prelate by Pope Paul VI in 1963, and named rector of St. Joseph Catholic School the following year.

He received his episcopal consecration on the following June 14 from Archbishop Luigi Raimondi, with Bishops Robert Emmet Tracy and Louis Abel Caillouet serving as co-consecrators.

He is alleged to have said to the Pope that according to the Code of Canon Law in effect at the time, any newly discovered territory fell under the jurisdiction of the diocese whence the expedition left.

[1] He received the pallium, a vestment worn by metropolitan bishops, from Pope Paul VI at St. Peter's Basilica on March 24, 1975.

He reorganized the Archdiocesan Central Services, naming cabinet-level secretaries to carry out the administrative work of the archdiocese.

The conditions of the Baltimore settlement remain confidential; the Orlando case was settled without Borders' admitting any wrongdoing.