“The Happiest Years Of My Life”: West Point Is Not Heaven, But It’s Close

Father Gabe Costa was born in 1948 and grew up in Hoboken, New Jersey. His parents were both born in the United States, but his Grandparents came from Italy. He grew up with his younger brother Gerard (who became a psychologist). Two other siblings died as children. His father, Philip, was a longshoreman whose alcoholism and violence ended his marriage to Lena, a homemaker. Gabe describes growing up in the Hoboken projects and having nothing after his father left in 1959, and his grandmother Rosa moved in. He was amazed that his mother was able to provide for the family. Gabe describes his grandmother as a saint. She was a Franciscan who was always praying and had no fear. Gabe’s first language was Italian. Growing up with his mother and grandmother, the household focused on love, faith, and education. Even so, the years of living with his father filled Gabe with a sense of fear and a lack of confidence that did not change until he met a math teacher and a priest who changed his life. Gabe attended public school in Hoboken and went from Kindergarten to a PhD in his one-mile square neighborhood. Hoboken was full of Irish and Italians who intermarried, and there were five Catholic churches in the town. At Hoboken High School, Mr. Ralph Rodriguez inspired his love of math. Mr. Rod gave up his lunchtime to instruct calculus, which Gabe describes as “magic to me.” Gabe was also in the Math Club. He earned a scholarship to Stevens Tech, which provided a certain number of scholarships to low-income high school graduates in Hoboken. Gabe describes coming-of-age in Hoboken, reflecting on close friends (“I buried their parents and baptized their kids.”), playing sports in the neighborhood, and dating and falling in love (“love is a decision”). While attending Stevens, a Priest named Father Frank Maione and a book about St. Francis of Assisi by G.K. Chesterton changed Gabe’s life. After graduating from Stevens, Gabe took a job teaching math at an all-girls Catholic School in Irvington. He was dating Ronnie McCoy and they were in love, but he was also being drawn to the priesthood (Father Gabe offers his thoughts on married priests). In May 1979, he was ordained a priest for the Newark Archdiocese and began serving as a hospital chaplain and a priest in the north ward. By that time, he had masters’ degrees in both math and theology, and the Bishop encouraged him to pursue a PhD in mathematics. After earning his PhD, he began teaching at Seton Hall University, and was fortunate to be released on academic leave to teach at the Military Academy. In addition to teaching Math at West Point, he continues to serve as a priest in the Archdiocese of Newark (Ironbound parish), and on weekends he returns to Seton Hall, where he has a residence and enjoys the company of priests there. The toughest thing he has had to deal with in his priesthood is being a minister to other priests and advocating for them to the Cardinal. Reflecting on teaching at West Point, he compares life here to life in a seminary. He loves watching Cadets grow over their time at the Academy, and he notes that they can “withstand a tremendous amount of pressure.” His office door in the Math Department is always open, and he frequently talks to Cadets, staff, and faculty, and offers the sacraments of confession and anointing the sick. Occasionally, Cadets come to Father Costa to ask about the possibility of serving as priests or religious. Gabe recommends doing whatever you have a passion for. Father Gabe remembers talking with Cadet David Chacko, USMA 15, who ordained as a priest in May 2023, and plans to return to Active Duty after three years of pastoral service in Texas. Near the end of his interview, he discusses sabermetrics and his hero, Babe Ruth, concluding that the fundamental theorem of sabermetrics is that if “sabermetrical analysis concludes that anyone other than Babe Ruth reigns as the greatest player ever, there is something wrong with the analysis.” Father Gabe concludes his interviewing stating, “I feel blessed to be an American, God has blessed our country,” and “West Point is not heaven, but it’s close.” He feels that he has spent the “happiest years” of his life at the Military Academy.