Ecuadorian priest Patricio Alfredo Sánchez Molinari, 53, died on Saturday, October 17 after a large wooden cross detached and fell on him while he was celebrating a mass at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Guayaquil, Ecuador. The accident was captured in the live broadcast of the ceremony on social media.
The priest was in front of the altar when the cross, located behind him, suddenly fell and hit him on the head. The footage shows several parishioners quickly coming to his aid while some present ask for an ambulance to be called. The broadcast was interrupted after the accident.
The death was confirmed by the Archbishop of Guayaquil, Cardinal Luis Gerardo Cabrera, who expressed his condolences to the priest's family and the religious community to which he belonged. Sánchez Molinari was a member of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer and served as the parish priest of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in the south-central part of the city.
The priest's death prompted numerous expressions of condolences from ecclesiastical institutions and the communities where he had carried out his pastoral work. Before taking on the parish in Guayaquil, he had served as a parish priest in San Lorenzo de Vinces, in the Ecuadorian province of Los Ríos. He was a native of Cuenca.
The accident occurred a day after the Archdiocese of Guayaquil congratulated the priest on his priestly anniversary. The Church has stated that it is awaiting the results of a technical report to clarify the causes of the cross detachment.
The Archdiocese has indicated that the parishes carry out maintenance work on the temples with the support of technical personnel, but conclusions about the origin of the accident have not been made public. The priest's remains were transported to Cuenca, his hometown, where his funeral was scheduled to take place.