# 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:** 16\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2026, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/priest-killed-by-falling-crucifix-while-doing-priest-stuff/1033954/121 "2026-10-20T22:40:02Z")
I’m reading that as that this happened in Ecuador. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2026, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/priest-killed-by-falling-crucifix-while-doing-priest-stuff/1033954/122 "2026-10-21T00:23:20Z")
> [@sciurophobic](#): > > It might be funny, but not as funny if a McDonald’s arch were to fall on Trump. That would be a tragedy. For a couple of days before they replaced the sign. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2026, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/priest-killed-by-falling-crucifix-while-doing-priest-stuff/1033954/123 "2026-10-21T00:37:45Z")
Can you imagine the lines at that store to get one of their hamberders in honor of the blessed event? ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2026, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/priest-killed-by-falling-crucifix-while-doing-priest-stuff/1033954/124 "2026-10-21T02:13:13Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > …right after singing the line, _“You can only live so long.”_ I admit, I snickered. ---
**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 21, 2026, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/priest-killed-by-falling-crucifix-while-doing-priest-stuff/1033954/125 "2026-10-21T09:18:34Z")
Probably not the way Versalle wanted to be remembered, but it’s certainly very operatic. There was also a performance of Gounod’s _Faust_ in Melbourne where the actor playing Mephistopheles, Frederick Federici, was descending through a trap door signifying his return to Hell at the end of the opera. Like Versalle, Federici suffered a massive heart attack during the descent and died. That, as they say, is show business. ---
**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 21, 2026, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/priest-killed-by-falling-crucifix-while-doing-priest-stuff/1033954/126 "2026-10-21T12:45:45Z")
We know he wasn’t a boxer else he would have been ready for a cross. ---
**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 21, 2026, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/priest-killed-by-falling-crucifix-while-doing-priest-stuff/1033954/127 "2026-10-21T13:16:03Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > > [@Gyrate](#): > > > > …right after singing the line, _“You can only live so long.”_ > > I admit, I snickered. I snickered when he told me. And that’s why i got (and deserved) a lecture on how upsetting it was to my friend, who had a “great seat” and all too good a view of it. Although, from the distance of a few decades, that’s not a bad death. Doing what he loved until the end. Far better than living in a coma for months or years after a major stroke, for instance. (Which is looking to be the fate of a square dance caller who was supposed to call at an event I’m running in 2 weeks, so it’s on my mind.) I don’t know how old the priest was, but in a couple of years, his family may see it the same way. Taken by his God in a moment of Grace. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2026, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/priest-killed-by-falling-crucifix-while-doing-priest-stuff/1033954/128 "2026-10-21T19:09:56Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > Taken by his God in a moment of Grace. If I were a relative, I would come to that conclusion. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2026, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/priest-killed-by-falling-crucifix-while-doing-priest-stuff/1033954/129 "2026-10-21T19:11:30Z")
I saw this reported in the New York Times and realized no newspaper would be reporting this if it weren’t notable for its irony. So there’s a tacit implication we might get a chuckle out of it. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2026, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/priest-killed-by-falling-crucifix-while-doing-priest-stuff/1033954/130 "2026-10-21T19:19:35Z")
It’s just too good a story to let it pass by any news outlet. That’s also why we have a 128 posts thread about it. ETA: to make it clear, I meant “good story” in the sense of getting clicks and selling copies for the outlets, I personally don’t feel good about the death of an innocent person, ironic death or not. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2026, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/priest-killed-by-falling-crucifix-while-doing-priest-stuff/1033954/131 "2026-10-21T19:41:07Z")
> [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > Mel Brooks: “Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die.” As a kid in the 60’s & 70’s I had a zillion Archie comic books. I remember one where Reggie pulled something on Archie and was running away and ran right into an open manhole. Two kids nearby were like “did you see THAT? He didn’t even touch the sides!” I’m a Deist, not an atheist. And I think what happened was horribly tragic. Yet I imagine the Jesus going “STFU” I didn’t die for this horseshit!" Can it be horrible and kind of funny at the same time? No? Fuck you. This is the Pit. ---
**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 21, 2026, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/priest-killed-by-falling-crucifix-while-doing-priest-stuff/1033954/132 "2026-10-21T21:30:26Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > Can it be horrible and kind of funny at the same time? I completely get some finding it funny, especially a subset of those with antipathy to institutional religion. The laughing hilariously watching someone die bit? It is funny to that person and that person has to be a horrible sick fuck … ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2026, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/priest-killed-by-falling-crucifix-while-doing-priest-stuff/1033954/133 "2026-10-21T21:35:41Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > Can it be horrible and kind of funny at the same time? Sure, nobody’s denying that. If a filmmaker was making a satirical comedy about random catastrophe and divine retribution or whatever, showing a priest getting fatally clocked by an immense crucifix while officiating at Mass could be (in its way) hilarious. And sure, that pointed absurdity doesn’t just vanish simply because the incident was real instead of fictional. Real vs. fictional does, however, significantly change the affect of somebody gleefully gloating about how much they laughed while watching footage of the incident. ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2026, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/priest-killed-by-falling-crucifix-while-doing-priest-stuff/1033954/134 "2026-10-22T01:34:02Z")
Re ironic opera deaths: The most famous on-stage death was Leonard Warren, who in 1960 finished an aria starting with _Mori, tremenda cosa_ (to die, a momentous thing) before suffering either a heart attack or stroke (there was no autopsy) and collapsing. Do not sing about death at the Met. (If I remember correctly, Versalle’s death happened during conductor David Robertson’s Met debut. I sang under Robertson for many years in the St. Louis Symphony Chorus. Which has nothing to do with anything; just a random connection.) ---
**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 22, 2026, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/priest-killed-by-falling-crucifix-while-doing-priest-stuff/1033954/135 "2026-10-22T01:52:38Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > I completely get some finding it funny, especially a subset of those with antipathy to institutional religion. The laughing hilariously watching someone die bit? > > It is funny to that person and that person has to be a horrible sick fuck … I agree with you, but let’s be honest here: that didn’t happen. The poster who said that was just trying to be edgy as fuck, because apparently they never got past the emotional maturity of a thirteen year old. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2026, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/priest-killed-by-falling-crucifix-while-doing-priest-stuff/1033954/136 "2026-10-22T04:22:43Z")
> [@fachverwirrt](#): > > If I remember correctly, Versalle’s death happened during conductor David Robertson’s Met debut. I guess it could only go uphill for Robertson after that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/priest-killed-by-falling-crucifix-while-doing-priest-stuff/1033954.md?page=6)