Father Robert Abbatiello is a native of Yonkers, NY, a graduate of both Sacred Heart Grade School and Sacred Heart High School ('78) and attended Manhattan College ('82). He received a Master of Divinity degree from Maryknoll School of Theology in 1990, and a Master of Science in Religious Education from Fordham University in 1998.
Father Bob entered the Capuchin Friars, Province of St. Mary, in August 1982. He joined the parish team at St. Michael’s in East New York, Brooklyn and, after his ordination in 1990, continued to serve there until 1993. He served the community as vocation minister, guardian and director of Capuchin Youth and Family Ministries in Garrison, N.Y. from 1993 to 2002. In 2002, he was appointed pastor of St. Pius X in Middletown, CT. Good Shepherd Parish in Inwood, NY welcomed him as pastor in 2008. He remained there until 2017 when he was elected Vicar Provincial for the Province of St. Mary. At that time he returned to Yonkers and served as a member of the Sacred Heart High School Board of Advisors. On May 20, 2019, Father Bob was appointed Pastor of Sacred Heart Church and President of Sacred Heart High School.
Ms. Acosta was appointed Principal of Sacred Heart High School on July 1, 2018.
Ms. Acosta is well known to the Sacred Heart Family, having served as Campus Minister and Theology Teacher since her hiring in 2016. Prior to joining Sacred Heart, Ms. Acosta served as Principal at three schools in the Archdiocese of New York, St. Angela Merici (2014-2016), Saint James and Saint Joseph (2010-2013), and Saint Anthony (1997-2010).
Ms. Acosta also served as the Director of the Stella-Mundi After-School Academy, a partnership with a charter school in the Bronx, devoted to providing Catholic values and instruction to low-income children. Ms. Acosta is a life-long Catholic educator, also having ministered as the Director of Religious Education at Saint Joan of Arc Parish in the Bronx.
Ms. Acosta also serves as the Regional Secretary of the Our Lady of Angels Region Secular Franciscans, Formation Secretary for her local Secular Franciscan Chapter, and as Editor and Publisher of the Associate newsletter for the Sisters of Saint Francis, Hastings, New York.
During her tenure as Campus Minister at Sacred Heart, Ms. Acosta began a chapter of Students for Life, created a student leader program, and coordinated the liturgies and prayer services for the high school community throughout the year.
In Ms. Acosta’s previous tenures as Principal, she established one of the first blended learning programs for grade schools in the entire Archdiocese of New York. She also boasts a commitment to creating servant-leaders, all in an environment of academic rigor.