His parents were József János Borbély and Julianna Hiros; he had two siblings.
He completed his secondary education at the Piarist school in Vác. On August 13, 1921, he entered the order in Szeged, where he studied philosophy from 1924 to 1926 and theology in Innsbruck from 1929 to 1932. He was ordained a priest there on July 26, 1931.
He completed his tertianship in 1938 in Amiens, France. He took his final vows on February 2, 1939.
Between 1943 and 1948, he also served as provincial superior. On December 7, 1948, the communist police appeared at the Jesuit house in Budapest and thoroughly searched it. They found nothing, but he learned through friends that the police intended to arrest him shortly thereafter. Consequently, on December 9, 1948, he left Budapest and was forced into hiding, living illegally in various Jesuit houses across the country, constantly fleeing from the communists who were searching for him. He crossed the Austrian border illegally on the night of January 14, 1949, with the permission of the Superior General, after appointing his successor.
From 1949 to 1951, he taught philosophy in Chieri, and then emigrated to Canada in 1952.
In 1977, he suffered a stroke, which caused him to lose his ability to communicate.

Az ősegyház. (Bangha Bélával közösen.)
A keresztény Egyház története I. Bp., 1937;
A nemzeti szocializmus katolikus szemmel. (Kézirat gyanánt.);
L’État des Défuntes jusqu’à la Resurrection de la Chair. H. n., é. n.;
A meg nem tépett köntös. Az egységes Egyház. Bp., 1939;
A hittitok és az értelem. Bp., 1943.