The Rev. Patricio Alfredo Sánchez Molinari died in Guayaquil on Saturday, 17 October, after a wooden crucifix came off the wall behind the altar during a livestreamed Mass. The Archdiocese of Guayaquil confirmed the death. NOS reported the case. The cause of the detachment had not, by 18 October, been announced officially.

Sánchez Molinari was parish priest at Nuestra Señora del Perpetuo Socorro, in the south of the city, and a Redemptorist. He faced the congregation and did not see the cross. Footage reviewed by NBC and AP shows the object falling onto his head. Someone calls for an ambulance. Emergency crews could not save him. The recording was taken down; newsrooms described it.

The statement, signed by Cardinal Luis Gerardo Cabrera Herrera, speaks of his going “to the House of the Father” and asks prayer for his rest, for the family and for the congregation. It does not say whether death was immediate or after care. It does not describe the mountings and does not announce a technical inspection.

A memorial Eucharist was set for Sunday evening. Extra.ec noted the shock in the local Christian community. How many people were in the church is not confirmed. The checked facts are the death, the place, the hour of the service and that the archdiocese named him as parish priest.

There is, in the sources consulted, no completed inquiry and no blame assigned. The fall is a reported accident, not a verdict on the building’s upkeep. Any story about screws, timber or an earthquake would be invention.

Guayaquil is left with a parish priest dead in front of a camera. The rest, including why the cross came loose, awaits a statement the archdiocese had not published by Sunday’s reports.

Image: Paulakindsvater, interior of Guayaquil Cathedral, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons; another city church, not Perpetuo Socorro on 17 October 2026.

Sources consulted: Priest in Ecuador dies during Mass after a falling crucifix - NOS; Priest in Ecuador dies after crucifix falls on him during livestreamed Mass - NBC News.