Follow-up on single mother criticisms in Tomsk

This is a follow-up to a story earlier posted here. The word chosen was a quite indelicate one.

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Tomsk, December 24 (Interfax) - The Eparchial Court of the Tomsk diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church has relieved Maxim Stepanenko of the duties of missionary department director following his remarks posted on the Internet criticizing single mothers, the Tomsk diocese said on its website.

"On orders issued by Archbishop Rostislav of Tomsk and Asinovo, Stepanenko was relieved of the duties of department head and was demoted to the position of a low-level employee of this department," it said.

The council members "unanimously recognized the unacceptability of rude and tactless remarks, as well as insults of human dignity in the mission's affairs, as well as stressed the advisability of a priest being appointed to head this department," it said.

Priest Alexy Samsonov, who serves at St. Sergius of Radonezh Church in Tomsk, has already been appointed as head of the Tomsk diocese's missionary department.

Stepanenko published an article on the website of the missionary department of the Russian Orthodox Church's Tomsk diocese on December 4, suggesting that an obscene word meaning a promiscuous woman be officially applied to single mothers and women who choose to have children out of wedlock.

The Prosecutor's Office, for its part, asked the Federal Service for Oversight in Communications, Information Technologies and the Media to conduct an inquiry into Stepanenko's remarks.