5 November 2024

Roberto Arzola Maisonet was born to Roberto Arzola Maldonado and Angelina Maisonet on December 19, 1945, in Santurce, Puerto Rico. Roberto attended public grade schools before entering Seminario San Alberto Magno in Bayamón to complete his secondary education. In 1964, he began undergraduate studies at the Bayamón campus of La Universidad Católica de Puerto Rico (now Universidad Central de Bayamón). On August 3, 1966, he entered the Order of Preachers as a novice for Province of the Netherlands to serve in the Vicariate in Puerto Rico. He completed his novitiate in Somerset, Ohio, with the Province of St. Joseph where he received the religious name Innocencius. He professed first vows on December 8, 1967, and began studies for the priesthood at the Studium Generale in Bayamón, Puerto Rico. He soon returned to formation with the Province of St. Joseph in Dover, Massachusetts, and obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy from St. Stephen’s College. He professed solemn vows on December 8, 1970, at St. Stephen’s Priory in Dover. He obtained a Master’s of Divinity from Weston College School of Theology in June of 1973. He was ordained a priest on February 24, 1974, at Parroquia Invención de la Santa Cruz in Bayamón by Luis Cardenal Aponte Martinez, Archbishop of San Juan.

After a few years of pastoral ministry, Fr. Roberto petitioned laicization and spent several years living apart from the Order. The petition was never granted and Fr. Roberto asked to be reintegrated into the Dominican mission in Puerto Rico in 1982. Over the following decades, he served in a variety of ministries in Puerto Rico: high school chaplain at Santa Rosa and Santo Domingo, parochial vicar at multiple parishes (Santísimo Rosario in Yauco, Invención de la Santa Cruz in Bayamón, Santa Catalina in Bayamón), pastor of Nuestra Señora del Perpetuo Socorro in Bayamón and Nuestra Señora del Carmen de Cataño, Rector of the Shrine of St. Martin de Porres, Promoter of the Holy Name Society, chaplain to USA Army Forces in Puerto Rico, etc. The brothers note his skill in pastoral work and preaching.

In addition to his many ministerial assignments, Fr. Roberto served the friars in Puerto Rico through a variety of internal ministries. He was an assistant Master of Novices and assistant Master of Students, a member of the economic council, superior of San Pedro Mártir in Catano, etc. He became a member of the Province of St. Albert the Great when the Dominican mission in Puerto was integrated into said Province in 2020.

Fr. Roberto was diagnosed with Parkinson’s and had to move into a nursing home, Hogar Santa Teresa Jornet, in 2021. He passed away on November 5, 2024. Office of the Dead and Mass of Christian Burial were held in the chapel of Convento de Nuestra Señora del Santo Rosario, Bayamón, Puerto Rico, on November 13, 2024. Fr. Maisonet Arzola was laid to rest in Cementario Porta Coeli, Bayamón.