James R. Golka

He attended Grand Island Central Catholic High School, where he played football.

During his time at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, Golka began talking about going into the priesthood with Jesuit priests.

In 1989, he spent a year volunteering at a high school on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota in what he called a test of his desire to become a priest.

[3][4][5] On June 29, 2021, Golka was consecrated at Holy Apostles Church in Colorado Springs by Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila, with Bishops Joseph G. Hanefeldt, and Michael Sheridan serving as co-consecrators.

[1] In November 2022, after the mass shooting at the Club Q nightclub in Colorado Springs in which five people died, Golka expressed his concern that LGBTQ individuals were targeted by the shooter.