The new Romanian Patriarch is a close friend of Vienna's Archibishop Cardinal Christoph Schonborn, a friendship that was forged in the 1980s, when Daniel was a lecturer at the Ecumenical Institute in Bossey, Switzerland.
Patriarku i ri rumun është mik i ngushtë i arqipeshkopit të Vienës, kardinalit Kristof Shonborn, miqësi e cila u mbruajt në vitet 1980 kur Daniel ishte një lektor në Institutin Ekumenik në Bosej, Zvicër.