I wasn’t always an Orthodox priest – in the Ceaucescu era I was with the Securitate, the secret military police, for a year, seven months and four days. That’s where I learned to fight. At night it was our job to pick up drunks on the streets. Back then I beat up a lot of people – today it makes me cry. In 1990, immediately after reunification, I became a priest. I’m keeping up an old family tradition, because my grandfather and my great-grandfather were also Orthodox priests. I have been the pastor of Hosman since 1995. I can only thank God for the Elijah social project: you can feel so much good will, both among the supporters and among those who implement it on site. That’s what makes Elijah so special in comparison to the state: Here is good will – and there just a lot of words. My heart is connected to Elijah because I can feel how one person loves another here – I can’t let that go. Likewise, Father Georg Sporschill and I are connected to one another in a great Catholic-Orthodox friendship – for me proof that there is only one God.