Goldie was the first woman to serve in an executive role in the Roman Curia; she was undersecretary of the Pontifical Council for the Laity from 1967 until 1976.

She attended high school at Our Lady of Mercy College, Parramatta, and later studied arts at the University of Sydney.

She gained a scholarship from the French government which allowed her to study at the Sorbonne where she heard Jacques Maritain.

In 1951 she worked at the first First World Congress of the Lay Apostolate and then studied Catholic theology at the academy of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith.

When the council became a permanent part of the Roman Curia in December 1976, Goldie took a professorship for pastoral theology at the Pontifical Lateran University continuing there as tutor when she retired from that post.