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."
