Doing the rounds in cyberspace these days is a strange, and striking, video. It shows a priest at service in some distant part of the globe. Even while he is being recorded on video, the crucifix behind him comes crashing down, and kills the hapless preacher.
Once again, it seemed suspiciously close to those too-sensational-to-be-real video forwards doing the rounds so often in cyberspace. Was it true, at all?
But no. Fact-checking on cyberspace (always a good practice) says the video is real "according to multiple news reports", including the Associated Press. It happened in Ecuador, the land of the Andes mountains, on South America's Pacific coast.
The priest who died on Oct 17, 2026, was Fr Patricio Alfredo Sánchez Molinari, a Redemptorist. Apparently, even while the Mass was being livestreamed, a large wooden crucifix mounted on the wall behind him came loose, and struck him on the head. One could hear screams of women parishioners. The Archdiocese of Guayaquil also confirmed his death.
Events like this sometimes make us think, about issues like life and death. How does one make sense of it? What meaning, if any, does one read into this?
As someone who saw oneself as a 'rationalist' in one's younger days, the tendency would be to see this as just chance or happenstance. However unexpected, unfair and painful it may seem, rationally speaking, this too could be best explained as one of those accidents for which there is little or no wider explanation. Like pilgrims dying in a stampede.
A friend might have not been very convinced when I wrote back on WhatsApp: See it this way: accidents happen all the time. Just because it involved a collapsing cross; and it was recorded and shared... people are reading a lot into it.
Nonetheless, we will still be left to ponder about the role played by chance in our lives.
We are struck by strange events, even locally. But this one was unusual and recorded; which is why the story was making ripples all the way from Guayaquil, Ecuador, to Goa, a distance of approx 16,800 kilometres.
In life, there's no guarantee that bad gets punished, or good gets repaid positively. In our times, there were at least two deaths of young men one personally knew, who went to help in religious shrines, but died by way of ill-fated accidents that happened to them there. One of these was our schoolmate, the young Dancho, who died in coastal Bardez.
The human mind is also quick to see connections, sometimes when none exist. There was a case once where a young man was attempting to warn motorists about a fallen electricity wire. Strangely, one of the passing vehicles ran into him, and the good Samaritan himself ended up with a broken arm! So much for wanting to help.
It is normal to get perturbed when we see something undeserved happening to a good person. Like being stricken by fatal or debilitating illness. Or, conversely, someone widely perceived as evil thriving and getting away with seemingly everything.
One would like to believe that there is a certain randomness (and chance) involved in developments that take place in our life. The reward system is far from perfect, and sometimes even unfair.
Our mind also plays tricks on us. What we see and know affects us. What is far away, doesn't seem to matter (except when brought home to us by a dramatic video, it seems).
For instance, the devastation of Gaza has upset some very dramatically, while leaving others cold. The bitter, intense and long-drawn conflict between Russia and Ukraine is by now forgotten, and reduced to two-column or single-column news. Even the outrage earlier expressed on Facebook by so many Ukraine supporters is now forgotten and mostly given up.
That one President of one country can cause so much conflict and devastation in the globe was on the top of the minds of many, but apparently not any more.
As someone said: The pain in your own ankle is far more important to you, than is the earthquake which killed 10,000 people last night in Peru. We humans are subjective, forgetful and equally random in our response. That the media can change this sometimes, is also true though.
The outrage and anger at the death of the priest due to a falling cross arose because the incident was tragic, unexpected and deeply disturbing. The cross is a symbol of faith, hope and protection. But, in this case, it became, the cause of the priest’s death, creating a painful irony.
People were shocked that a religious symbol could lead to such a tragedy. It is easy to blame negligence after an accident, but we too would have not seen things differently in the same situation. Needless to say, every human (and, maybe not just human) life needs to be valued.
Interestingly enough, some societies like Bhutan, and its Buddhist culture, are known to repeatedly think of death (some say, five times each day). The Buddhist teaching is that remembering our mortality helps us accept impermanence: Everything, including our lives, relationships and possessions, eventually changes or ends.
Psychologically, this can help us to revalue life, soften our fear of the inevitable, put everyday worries and grudges into perspective, encourage gratitude for ordinary moments, and motivate us to spend time on what genuinely matters.
Some psychologists believe that--strange though it may seem--contemplating death can prompt more positive thoughts; though not for those prone to anxiety. The aim is not to dwell morbidly on dying, but to remember that life is finite so that we can maybe try to live it more consciously, compassionately and fully. The thought can be hard to come to terms with.
