Father Joseph Tran, PASTOR

Fr. Joseph was born and raised in Saigon, a city in south Vietnam. He has three brothers and five sisters. Five of his siblings as well as his mother live in the United States.

At the age of 10, he received his vocation to the priesthood. Due to religious persecution by the Communist regime and poverty, he could not attend the seminary in Vietnam. Fr. Joseph prayed that he could escape and be in the land of true freedom to discern his vocation to serve God and His Church. God listened to his prayer. In May of 1986, when he was 16 years old, he left Vietnam by himself in a small fishing boat, which was on the ocean for seven days and nights. The boat landed in Thailand where he stayed in a refugee camp for five months until October 1986.

He was sponsored by the U.S. Catholic Charities and his older brother, who had also escaped Vietnam four years earlier, and was able to immigrate to St. Louis, Missouri. He lived there with his brother and finished high school and a year of community college. He then joined the Vietnamese Dominican religious order in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and was sent to Christ The King Seminary in Mission, British Columbia, and the Dominican University in Ottawa, Ontario, to finish his BA with a concentration in Philosophy. After finishing his studies, he asked his Superior for a year of absence so he could reflect deeply on his vocation before entering the novitiate, (a year of intense prayer and reflection before taking religious vows), which was granted.

He returned to St. Louis and worked for his older brother in the restaurant business for five years. Then, in 1998, at the request of his older sister, he moved to Denver, Colorado. He worked for one more year before returning to the seminary, However, he did not return to the Dominican religious order but instead entered St. John Vianney Seminary where he finished a year of Spirituality and four years of Theology. During this time he felt called to be a diocesan priest more than a religious priest, due to the strength of his pastoral ministry.

He was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Denver May 22, 2004. After ordination, he served as Parochial Vicar at St. Michael Parish in Aurora for three years. Then Fr. Joseph was sent to Immaculate Heart of Mary in Northglenn for 6 months as Assistant Pastor. Following that, he served as Pastor at St. Anthony of Padua in Julesburg and St. Peter in Crook for 4 years and 4 months before coming to St. Martin de Porres Parish in Boulder. He was pastor there for 5 years before coming to St. Joseph in Golden in June 2017.

He hopes to grow spiritually with each of us and to be "salt & light" to the whole world with all of us.

Maura Burns

Maura is our Pastoral Music Coordinator.

Maura can be reached at maurab at stjoegold.org.

Carol Hartzell

Carol can be reached at maintenance at stjoegold.org.

TERRI HUFF

Terri is our Director of Liturgy.

Terri can be reached at terrih@stjoegold.org

Joseph Simmons

Joe is the Business Manager for St. Joseph. He joined the parish staff in 2015. His areas of responsibility include the business operations of the parish, human resources for the staff, and overseeing management of the property.

Prior to working at St. Joseph, he was the owner and manager at Alliance Office Supply for over 27 years. He is married and the father of four. His family have been parishioners of Notre Dame Parish for many years. He is also a member of the Knights of Columbus Council 4844 and serves as their Financial Secretary.

Joe can be reached at josephs at stjoegold.org

Bill Virden

Bill can be reached at maintenance at stjoegold.org.

Michael "Misio" Wynar

Misio has served the Church as a Catholic missionary with FOCUS since 2011 and absolutely loves working with people of all cultural backgrounds. He has traveled the world (28 countries!) and been able to enjoy and observe many different cultures and social stratifications. He experienced first-hand the crucial perspective an American receives from integrating with foreign cultures as he lived and studied Theology in Ukraine for a year in 2008-2009. He's bilingual in English and Ukrainian, knows Latin and has studied Spanish, Greek, and Church Slavonic. Serving as Director of Evangelization for St. Joseph only fuels his passion for helping others. He gained experience in evangelization, leadership, and mentorship from being a team director and missionary in FOCUS. He also has teaching and pastoral experience from teaching at Rockhurst High School in Kansas City, Missouri in 2005-2006, as well as from the Jesuits, where he lived in deliberate community and prayer to serve others as a religious in a religious order in 2007-2008.                                        

A message from Misio: "My faith in God is seen throughout my life and my work. Jesus is my role model. Gratitude is the most important aspect of my life and work, because without gratitude, a person is not genuine. As we can see in Jesus, actions speak louder than words, and our example is much more influential and can impact the heart. This gift of authenticity shows especially in my work with others. I pray every day and ask for help from God Our Father, Jesus The Son, and The Holy Spirit to guide me and strengthen me to do His Will. I hope to be able to share Love Himself, Jesus Christ Our Lord, to all."

Miso can be reached at misiow at stjoegold.org.