Ri Hyon Ok, a 33-year-old mother of three, was publicly executed in the North Korean city of Ryongchon on June 16 of this year.
Her husband, children and parents were sent to a political prison the following day.
Her crime: Distributing the Bible and allegedly spying for South Korea and the United States.
The story can be found on quite a few websites; cathnews.com - hosted.ap.org, to name two....I first came upon her story on catholicnewsagency.com (CNA) [catholicnewsagency.com].
As I write this, 3 comments had been left following the CNA story and it's these comments that I wish to write about.
The first comment was left by one Robert Matzinger who wrote:
Another martyr has perished. Let us pray to Christ and Our Holy Mother that her soul will be received with just rewards from our merciful God.
Mr. Matzinger's is really the only appropriate comment that anyone could make. The other 2 comments were not so well written.
Someone going by the name Jean wrote this piece of garbage:
She was accused of spying.
Anyway, if it was for distributing the bible then this brings infinite joy to my heart. I, like many others, have suffered unspeakable abuses and atrocities, in the name of biblical nonsense.
Justice is being done. :)
I have no idea what sort of "unspeakable abuses and atrocities" Jean may have suffered. I do know, however, only a twisted, horrible person could experience "infinite joy" in her heart at the execution of anyone for practicing their religious beliefs. Whatever "unspeakable abuses and atrocities" Jean may have suffered, those abuses were not committed against her by Ri Hyon Ok.
Finally, we have this comment from Bill of San Jose, Ca.:
That's interesting, I remember when the Church didn't want people reading the Bible either.
The Church, I'm sure, did not publicly execute anyone in Bill's lifetime for distributing the Bible. The fact is, while the Church may not have encouraged Catholics to read the Bible on their own, this was to prevent private, erroneous interpretations of the Bible that were contrary to the true teachings of the Church.
My comment, which I hope will be published within the next 48 hours, was :
"Let us pray for Jean and Bill as well."
6 comments:
"...while the Church may not have encouraged Catholics to read the Bible on their own..."
Yeah, 'cause granting an indulgence for reading the Bible is a tricky way Popes discourage Bible reading by Christians in the Church founded by Jesus.
Ha ha. Try again.
Sorry Rennie,but your comment makes absolutely no sense.
Your "ha ha. try again" tag at the end indicates that you obviously believe you've scored some sort of point.....maybe you're the one that should consider trying again.
Until the invention of the printing press, the literacy rate worldwide was somewhere in the 3-5% range. So "discouraging people from reading the Bible", as Bill had written, rejects history.
Many people want to be controlled, told what to think , how to think.. You can read this book , but WE will tell you what it really means and only our truth is the real truth. Encouraging free thinking or interpretation can reduce or lose that needed control. That is basic human nature. And has been used by kings, tyrants, religions and governments for all of human history. I'm not saying it's good or bad , just a well known and used fact of the human psyche.
Hi Anon,
When the Catholic Church presents her interpretation of the Bible, the Church is not telling anyone how to think. She is presenting the truth as taught by the Church. If one does not believe what the Church teaches, then you can leave the Church. That's basic common sense.
You wrote;
"Encouraging free thinking or interpretation can reduce or lose that needed control."
In spite of what you believe, this is not a matter of control. It is a matter of maintaining the truth by following the teachings of Jesus Christ.
When the Bible was finally made available to the masses....thanks to the printing press and translations into the languages of the masses.....the Protestants came to say that anyone could understand the Bible on their own; no need for an authority.
The result has been that we now have thousands of Protestant churches - all claiming to have the truth, all the while contradicting, not only the Catholic Church, but all the other Protestant churches as well.
The phrase to use for the woman mocking the Korean martyr, and for the fool mocking the Faith for which she died, is "anathema sit".
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