# Priest killed by falling crucifix while doing priest stuff **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 18, 2026, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/priest-killed-by-falling-crucifix-while-doing-priest-stuff/1033954 "2026-10-18T21:23:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2026, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/priest-killed-by-falling-crucifix-while-doing-priest-stuff/1033954/41 "2026-10-19T12:32:38Z")
> [@Stratocaster](#): > > Over in the school shooter thread there’s much soul searching and gnashing of teeth because, God forbid, perhaps we weren’t valuing the shooter’s life adequately. > > And then here we giggle over a priest’s death. This says something about this board. Not sure what. I was actually thinking the very same thing. Because of traumatic experiences involving criminals, I pretty much applaud when any of them are injured or killed. I have been criticized for posting those kinds of feelings in the past. In this instance involving what appears to be a good man doing something he valued and loved, his death is a joke. Don’t blame the SDMB, though, it’s people in general. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2026, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/priest-killed-by-falling-crucifix-while-doing-priest-stuff/1033954/42 "2026-10-19T13:08:30Z")
My first thought was the priest dying in The Omen. Second thought- what caused it? I assume it was suspended by wires but what caused them to fail? ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2026, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/priest-killed-by-falling-crucifix-while-doing-priest-stuff/1033954/43 "2026-10-19T13:10:42Z")
> [@Johnny\_Bravo](#): > > But the “I laughed for a solid twenty minutes after watching a guy die” post is one of the most disturbing things I’ve ever read on these boards. Agreed. If this guy was preaching the death and destruction of those who disagree with him, and a physical representation of his purported “lord and savior” violently ended that talk, I’d consider it with some amusement. This is not that. It’s just a man getting killed on camera. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2026, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/priest-killed-by-falling-crucifix-while-doing-priest-stuff/1033954/44 "2026-10-19T13:17:13Z")
I do not think it is a senseless accident at all. Some negligent asshole obviously failed to anchor that thing properly, guaranteeing it would fall. This was no natural disaster. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2026, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/priest-killed-by-falling-crucifix-while-doing-priest-stuff/1033954/45 "2026-10-19T13:20:19Z")
How long had it been since was installed? ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2026, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/priest-killed-by-falling-crucifix-while-doing-priest-stuff/1033954/46 "2026-10-19T13:20:41Z")
Yeah, I don’t know anything about the late Father Sanchez Molinari, but I know of no reason to consider his death funny. Could such a scenario be funny in a cartoon? Sure, potentially. There are a lot of ways to die that are funny in cartoons that people don’t make gleeful posts about when they happen in real life to random strangers. (As a Jew, I can’t help wondering if there would be this same kind of enjoyment of, say, footage of a rabbi getting killed during services in some kind of freak accident with a falling Torah scroll, and how that would come across.) ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2026, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/priest-killed-by-falling-crucifix-while-doing-priest-stuff/1033954/47 "2026-10-19T13:26:33Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > I do not think it is a senseless accident at all. Some negligent asshole obviously failed to anchor that thing properly, guaranteeing it would fall. This was no natural disaster. Well, one other thing it definitely is not is ‘funny’. That was all I was trying to say. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2026, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/priest-killed-by-falling-crucifix-while-doing-priest-stuff/1033954/48 "2026-10-19T13:27:19Z")
Many churches are dirt poor. Lack of maintenance due to lack of funds is a very real possibility. There are many old cathedral like churches in Chicago. They were built like fortresses but, after a century or more, the architecture has been slowly eroding. About a year or so ago, a steeple on one of those old churches just finally gave way, so they tore it down. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2026, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/priest-killed-by-falling-crucifix-while-doing-priest-stuff/1033954/49 "2026-10-19T13:31:19Z")
> [@@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > […] horrible and violent death of an innocent person […] > [@Locrian](#): > > “Innocent person”? Who? The late Father Sanchez Molinari, who as far as anybody knows was completely innocent of any crime making him liable to the death penalty (or any lesser penalty for that matter), much less extrajudicial immediate destruction. I mean, dude, it was gross enough if you were just toddler-snickering because _teeheehee man in ceremonial robes getting suddenly crushed by huge falling object is funny like cartoon_. When you start trying to cover your ass by insinuating that this random accidentally killed human being somehow _deserved_ it, that’s just disgusting. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2026, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/priest-killed-by-falling-crucifix-while-doing-priest-stuff/1033954/50 "2026-10-19T13:36:14Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > If I had known about this before giving a guest sermon at my local church this morning, I’ll take “Things I never thought I’d see Czarcasm say” for $600 ---
**Author:** ![SuntanLotion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suntanlotion/32/16165_2.png) [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2026, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/priest-killed-by-falling-crucifix-while-doing-priest-stuff/1033954/51 "2026-10-19T13:46:02Z")
Its not in the bible, but its a fact-shit happens. Weird how some impute divine justice to simple accidents. ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2026, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/priest-killed-by-falling-crucifix-while-doing-priest-stuff/1033954/52 "2026-10-19T13:55:04Z")
It seems reminiscent of the disparate reactions to the killing of the UnitedHealthcare CEO (and/or Charlie Kirk, _et al_): > **[Killing of Brian Thompson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Brian_Thompson)** > > Pennsylvania On December 4, 2024, Brian Robert Thompson, the CEO of the American health insurance company UnitedHealthcare, was shot and killed by 26-year-old Luigi Mangione outside the New York Hilton Midtown in Manhattan, New York City, where Thompson was heading to attend an investors' meeting. The perpetrator, initially described as a white man wearing a mask, fled the scene. The words "delay", "deny", and "depose" were inscribed on the cartridge cases used during the shooting. On December ... Which is becoming yet another kind of societal **[Rorschach Test](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rorschach_test)**. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2026, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/priest-killed-by-falling-crucifix-while-doing-priest-stuff/1033954/53 "2026-10-19T13:55:05Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > I do not think it is a senseless accident at all. Some negligent asshole obviously failed to anchor that thing properly, guaranteeing it would fall. This was no natural disaster. We don’t know any of the details. Maybe it was carefully and safely installed 150 years ago and a critical piece rusted away, out of sight. Maybe a small earthquake damaged the attachment, and no one could see the damage, and it was literally a natural disaster. (I once had a toilet tank crack during a tiny earthquake, and our basement flooded.) Maybe someone criminally tampered with it immediately prior. If there were a rash of similar events, I’d feel like _someone should do something about it_. If it was a rash of similar events near me, i might even think that someone was partially me, and i might suggest my local legislators addressed it in the building codes. As a one-off, far away, I’m inclined to file it under “senseless tragedy”. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2026, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/priest-killed-by-falling-crucifix-while-doing-priest-stuff/1033954/54 "2026-10-19T13:56:46Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > Maybe someone criminally tampered with it immediately prior. This DOES seem like exactly the sort of thing you’d do in a Hitman game for extra thematic points or whatever. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2026, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/priest-killed-by-falling-crucifix-while-doing-priest-stuff/1033954/55 "2026-10-19T14:18:32Z")
> [@Stratocaster](#): > > And then here we giggle over a priest’s death. This says something about this board. Not sure what. That this board is made up of different individuals with divergent sensibilities? Despite all the accusations of group think it is exactly what I would expect. There are some here who have great antipathy to organized religion of any kind, others specifically to Christianity, and to them the irony of a priest presumably preaching how Christ (and the Church) will save you is fitting. To others of us? If this was during a sermon in which he was preaching that God will strike down unbelievers, or homosexuals, or whatever … yeah funny. If the priest was preaching love your neighbor and take of each other whatever your beliefs … tragic. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2026, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/priest-killed-by-falling-crucifix-while-doing-priest-stuff/1033954/56 "2026-10-19T14:32:17Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > There are some here who have great antipathy to organized religion of any kind, others specifically to Christianity And still others to organized religion of any kind on the assumption that they all basically work like Christianity. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2026, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/priest-killed-by-falling-crucifix-while-doing-priest-stuff/1033954/57 "2026-10-19T14:38:55Z")
The funny part is _how_ the priest died. Hit by ceiling tile? Shot by spree shooter? Fallen through rotten floor? Not funny. Bonked on the head by a giant crucifix? Hilarious. Maybe not quite a “hoist by his own pitard”, but definitely a high-level ironic death. The funniest part about it (for me) is not his instant death but how the congregation will handle it. For non-believers, it was a completely random accident. But for people who are raised to believe that everything happens for a reason, they _gotta_ be spending a lot of time wondering exactly what God _meant_ when he whacked the priest with Jesus. And _that_ is hilarious. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2026, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/priest-killed-by-falling-crucifix-while-doing-priest-stuff/1033954/58 "2026-10-19T14:49:36Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > (As a Jew, I can’t help wondering if there would be this same kind of enjoyment of, say, footage of a rabbi getting killed during services in some kind of freak accident with a falling Torah scroll, and how that would come across.) Well, there’s the apocryphal story of the death of [Charles-Valentin Alkan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles-Valentin_Alkan#Death), which may in turn have been inspired by a story about [Aryeh Leib ben Asher](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aryeh_Leib_ben_Asher_Gunzberg) Gunzberg, but neither really meet the same criteria for “hilarity”. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2026, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/priest-killed-by-falling-crucifix-while-doing-priest-stuff/1033954/59 "2026-10-19T14:50:23Z")
‘Ironic’ is _ **not** _ synonymous with ‘funny’ especially when the irony involves the death of a human being. I don’t know, maybe I’m weird, but I don’t find the fact that any human being was killed by a large falling object to be funny under any circumstance. Here’s a laugh riot for all of you who are enjoying the crushed priest story-- there’s a scuplture of a giant blue horse at the Denver airport. Did you know the horse fell on the sculptor and killed him? Hilariously ironic! Try not to bust a gut laughing… > **[Death by Art: The Story Behind Luis Jiménez’ Iconic Blue Mustang](https://www.dailyartmagazine.com/death-art-untimely-death-luis-jimenez/)** > > Luis Jiménez, the artist behind Denver’s infamous Blue Mustang met a tragic, untimely death while completing this captivating sculpture. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2026, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/priest-killed-by-falling-crucifix-while-doing-priest-stuff/1033954/60 "2026-10-19T14:54:16Z")
> [@solost](#): > > maybe I’m weird, but I don’t find the fact that any human being was killed by a large falling object to be funny under any circumstances. What if a big (capital) T from a Trump building fell on Trump? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/priest-killed-by-falling-crucifix-while-doing-priest-stuff/1033954.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/priest-killed-by-falling-crucifix-while-doing-priest-stuff/1033954.md?page=4)