Archbishop James Golka: A shepherd with the heart of Christ
- Roxanne King
- Mar 23
- 8 min read
Updated: Mar 25
Nebraska native’s hometown family and friends share who he is and what he’s like
Connected to Christ. Of the many fine qualities those close to Archbishop James Golka attribute to him, the foundational one is that.
He is genuine, prayerful, humble, deeply faithful and pastoral, said family, friends, mentors and colleagues. His leadership flows not from ideology or image, but from a profound connection to Jesus Christ that shapes how he treats people and lives his vocation.
“What you see is authenticity,” said his former seminary classmate and good friend Father Dave Korth of Omaha, Nebraska. “His connectedness to God is remarkable.”
“It was not a surprise at all that he became a bishop,” Father Korth added, echoing the sentiment of others. “Nor was it a surprise that he was elevated to archbishop so quickly.”
Family Life
Born September 22, 1966, in Grand Island, Nebraska, Jim was the fourth of 10 children — six boys and four girls — in the Robert and Patricia Golka family. His dad was a civil engineer, his mom a Catholic school teacher.
“I'm so blessed to be born into the family that I had,” Archbishop Golka said. “My mom and dad were incredible parents. They somehow passed on the faith to their children. I say somehow, but it was because they practiced their faith regularly and lived it daily in the house.
“Sunday Mass was not an option; it was just what we did. As we got older, we could have five kids having a sporting event on the weekend somewhere, so it would often begin on Saturday when mom would ask us, ‘Which Mass are you going to?’ We would plan who was going where — some Saturday evening, some Sunday.”
Bedtime prayer, shared meals, attending one another’s events and mutual support helped foster both faith and resilience in a busy household. Growing up, Jim played football, track and baseball, and helped at home, recalled his second-oldest brother, John Golka, adding that Jim demonstrated leadership from an early age.
“Jim was just a real well‑rounded kid,” the Omaha resident said.
When John discerned the diocesan priesthood after graduating from high school, Jim, then an eighth grader, asked to visit him at the seminary and stayed for a week.
“He was one of my heroes. I thought if he could do it, I could do it,” Archbishop Golka recalled. “He discerned out at the end of one year, but it just stayed in me.”
John ultimately chose marriage and a career in Catholic education, which was a deeply held value in the Golka family. All 10 kids graduated from Grand Island Central Catholic High School, where mom, Patricia, taught theology, and John would later serve as principal.
Jim, a 1985 graduate, went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in theology and philosophy from Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1989. Though he initially chose to attend Creighton to explore life more fully — and even considered marriage — his priestly call persisted. During college, he became deeply involved in campus ministry, daily Mass and service trips.
A pivotal experience came during a year with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota following his college graduation. Living and working among the Lakota Sioux, he gained clarity about his vocation. Grateful for the Jesuits’ influence in prayer, discernment and intellectual formation, he nonetheless had a strong sense that God was calling him to diocesan priesthood rather than religious life.
“I thought I would be [at Pine Ridge] for two or three years, but by Thanksgiving, I felt called to be a priest for the Diocese of Grand Island,” Archbishop Golka said. “It was very clear. I thank God for that clarity.”
Seminary, Priesthood and Episcopacy
Dave Korth met Jim Golka when the two were attending St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota, in the early ‘90s. Through shared Nebraska roots, large families, athletics and deep faith, they became fast friends.
From playing shortstop one spring day with a few fellow seminarians, Jim earned the nickname “Golka with the Range” — teasingly pronounced in the accent made famous in the movie Fargo and alluding to Minnesota’s Iron Range.
“We couldn't hit anything in between second base and third base,” Father Korth said with a laugh. “He was ranging all of it. And stopping everything.”
When Father Golka was ordained in 1994, Father Korth was already a priest of two years. Their friendship continued after their ordinations and remains strong today. They still share annual gatherings with other priest friends that include golf and card games.
Father Korth also knows the wider Golka family. The pastor of two Omaha parishes and president of three tuition-free inner-city Catholic schools, he is pastor to a brother and sister-in-law of Archbishop Golka. He employs one of the prelate’s sisters as his secretary.
While he long believed Father Golka would make an exceptional bishop, serious injuries — including two separate instances of breaking his neck, first when a 16-pound shotput fell from a shelf onto his neck and then again in a bicycle accident — nearly made that future uncertain. After corrective surgery alleviated most chronic pain, Father Golka’s eventual appointment as bishop, and now archbishop, seemed the providential course.
The day his good friend was installed as bishop of Colorado Springs, June 29, 2021 — after serving 27 years as a priest in Grand Island — was the day Father Korth learned he had cancer. At a post-installation celebration, he shared his diagnosis with his friend and asked the new prelate’s blessing.
“He said, ‘I'll give you my blessing, but I want my sister Jean to give you her blessing too,’” Father Korth recalled, adding that the bishop explained his 52-year-old sister had successfully battled the same cancer at 19. “That’s the kind of humble, thoughtful, family person he is. He might be the Denver archbishop now, but he recognizes that other people have blessings to give as well.
“He’s so gentle, and so kind and so good,” he continued. “Holy is one way to describe him.”
‘A wonderful apostle’
Father Charlie Torpey, J.C.L., was the first pastor under whom the newly ordained Father Golka served at St. James Church in Kearney, Nebraska.
“He was a hardworking guy. His big gift is that he just tunes into people so well,” the now retired former vicar general said, emphasizing the young Father Golka’s capacity to listen carefully, perceive unspoken needs and respond thoughtfully.
Excellent at preaching and liturgy, he was always relatable, Father Torpey said. Young people were captivated by him, as when he did the funeral for an athlete and twirled a basketball on his finger to make a point, and another time when he delivered a great homily in English at a penance service, then seamlessly did one in Spanish that resonated with the Spanish-speakers.
“He’s the finest priest I ever met,” Father Torpey said. “Listening to his homilies, you see how he really has taken to heart the gospel of Jesus. He’s just a wonderful apostle.”
‘A true shepherd’s heart’
Jolene Wojcik, executive director of the Central Catholic Development Foundation in Grand Island, Nebraska, got to know Father Golka 10 years ago when he became rector of St. Mary Cathedral, where she, her husband and their two daughters worshiped. (The Cathedral assignment was a homecoming for Father Golka, as it is where he was baptized as an infant and was ordained to the priesthood.)
Father Golka became a close friend who, in recent years, celebrated the marriages of the couple’s daughters. He also became a colleague of Jolene Wojcik when, in 2019, they began serving together on a committee aiming to open a new elementary school.
“Grand Island didn't have a Catholic grade school for like 50 years,” Wojcik said, adding that Jim Golka was in second grade at St. Mary School when the bishop closed it and the other parochial grade school that existed at the time, but spared Central Catholic High School.
“When [Father Golka] was named bishop of Colorado Springs, the principal/ superintendent came into my office, shut the door and we just cried because he was heading our committee for the grade school and we thought, ‘He's leaving — we may not be able to go forward,’” Wojcik said.
Despite Bishop Golka’s move, he continued to lend support to the campaign, which was successful. He attended the new school’s ribbon-cutting in 2024. It was a full-circle moment.
“Mom came home one day and told us that they had to close the grade schools because there's not enough money,” he recalled at the ribbon cutting. “And I sat on the stoop, and I cried, and I was mad at our bishop. I joke that I've been mad at bishops ever since. … Today I've decided I'm not going to be mad anymore. I’m just so grateful [for Central Catholic Elementary School].”
Like Fathers Korth and Torpey, Wojcik emphasized her former pastor’s compassionate leadership and genuine care for others that helped her family, the parish and the wider Catholic community grow in faith, pointing to Eucharistic processions he led through town during the COVID-19 pandemic and to his ability to connect across generations.
“He just really can see you and understand you,” she said. “He has a true shepherd’s heart.”
‘United with Christ’
As a priest, Father Golka held several leadership positions in the Grand Island Diocese, which is how Bishop Joseph Hanefeldt came to know him, as well as through various liturgical events and priest gatherings.
“He has the heart of Jesus, the way he approached his life as a priest,” Bishop Hanefeldt said. “Would that all of us who are in ordained ministry also have that kind of heart.”
Like others, Bishop Hanefeldt sensed his deeply pastoral priest would someday be named a bishop, given the widespread respect and recognition he received among priests and laity alike. When indeed Father Golka was elevated to the episcopacy in 2021, he became the first priest of the more than century-old Grand Island Diocese to be named a bishop.
“It was the fulfillment of the dream of some and the expectation of many,” Bishop Hanefeldt said. “And now, Archbishop of Denver — there’s this sense that this is good, this is right.”
He noted Archbishop Golka’s strong devotion to his family, describing how he has intentionally cultivated close family relationships and friendships throughout his priesthood and episcopacy. This commitment, he said, has strengthened both the prelate’s personal life and his sense of responsibility as a spiritual father.
“What I really admire is how connected — how united he is with Jesus,” Bishop Hanefeldt said. “His faith is nourished by his prayer life. It’s authentic and runs deep, and it's been consistent. … His deep relationship with Jesus is the foundation of his life and ministry.
