You can hear the smile in his voice as Rev. Graham Golden, O. Praem., ’04 describes his years at St. Pius X High School. 

“I would call it the bubble,” he said in a February 2021 interview. “Between the beauty of the campus, the overall atmosphere and environment of the classroom and the student body, it was an oasis away from everything happening in society. It was a safe place to be; a place set apart.”

The self-described band geek played clarinet and saxophone and enjoyed his theater tech class. He had a small core of close friends and a sense of shyness he has since had to overcome.

“The thing about Pius I carried with me the most was the fact it was an intellectually provocative and open environment,” he said. “I was doing a lot of searching and was an open critic of the Church, and it was a space where that was possible. It was open to sincere discourse around issues, thoughts, ideologies and worldviews. That is what allowed me to get to where I am in my vocational journey as I was exposed to the breadth and depth of the Church.”

He was impacted by many faculty members: music teacher Richardo Valenzuela; theology teachers Scott Howard ’85, Michael Fitzgerald and Al Mills; English teachers Joan Sabado and Jennifer Hillsey who honed his writing skills; Spanish teacher Juan de Dios Baca; and social studies teacher Mark Robinson who taught him to love learning and engage critically. 

At the University of New Mexico, Golden majored in music education and Spanish and minored in philosophy. “I kept asking myself what am I doing with my life and the big things that kept coming to mind were the whys of the motivations of the interests I had,” he said. “Why do I want to teach? My interest was really in service. The idea of consecrated life, publicly offered for the well being of others, became more attractive. Why did I want to teach music? It wasn’t really the music itself but the idea of bringing something beautiful to people’s lives. That’s something that came with the priesthood.”

By his senior year of college in 2007, Golden moved into the Norbertine Community of Santa Maria de la Vid Abbey in Albuquerque’s South Valley. He desired a monastic life that would allow him to serve in New Mexico and the Archdiocese of Santa Fe. “I wanted the rhythm of monastic life but active ministry,” he says. 

After graduating from UNM he attended St. Norbert College in Wisconsin and the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, where he received a master’s degree in divinity and intercultural ministries. He also earned a master’s in social services from the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration. Much of his ministry has been in the realm of social service and community development work. Golden was ordained to the priesthood June 20, 2015. 

In 2016, Golden received the Cardinal Bernardin New Leadership Award, sponsored by the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, the anti-poverty program of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. The award stemmed from his work as coordinator of program development, evaluation and research for the Catholic Foundation of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe working with local communities to fund programs that build local leadership in the effort to achieve social justice.

He currently serves as the pastor at St. Augustine Parish at Isleta Pueblo, before that serving at Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary Catholic Community. Within his Norbertine community he is the director of Christian Discipleship and Religious Formation and oversees community outreach initiatives and evangelization programs.

“I was drawn to communal life,” he said. “For us the community is primary and the ministry is what comes from our common life. It’s a very liturgical life. Our whole day is framed in common prayer and liturgy.”

Golden said being a Norbertine and a priest bring the opportunity to see how God is working in the lives of people you are close to. “As a Norbertine, you are with these people for life, which brings all of the natural human challenges, but also beauty and grace,” he said. “And as a priest, the most meaningful thing is to witness what God does in people’s lives through the sacraments. I get to witness it and be in the midst of it.”