The Second Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, was held in Vatican City from 24 November to 8 December 1985 on the topic of The Twentieth Anniversary of the Conclusion of the Second Vatican Council. The synod was a gathering of 165 bishops and other participants to celebrate, verify, and promote the council, also known as Vatican II. The participants evaluated the implementation of the changes heralded by Vatican II in the past, and discussed how best to apply them in the future. The bishops discussed topics including secularism, evangelization, the universal call to holiness, formation of seminarians, catechism, liturgy, communion, the role of the laity, ecumenism, the preferential option for the poor, and Catholic social teaching. In the months leading up to it, it was widely expected that the synod would be a showdown between the conservative Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and more liberal prelates, like the American representative, Bishop James Malone. This led to some calling the event "Ratzinger's Synod." There was also speculation that the representatives of bishops' conferences would seek to gain more autonomy from the Vatican. In the synod's final report, Pope John Paul II included three of the suggestions of the bishops that he welcomed the most: the creation of a catechism of Catholic faith and morals, a study of the theological nature of bishops' conferences, and the publication of a new code of canon law for the Eastern Catholic Churches. The Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches was published in 1990. A notable result of the synod was the 1992 publication of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Background The synod was announced on the evening of 25 January 1985, the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, by Pope John Paul II at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls. In making the announcement, the pope said:"This year is the twentieth anniversary of the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council, whose first announcement, we well recall, was made by my predecessor John XXIII, of venerated memory, in this very basilica and on this same day, the 25th of January 1959."The Pope said his goal was to "'to relive in some way that extraordinary atmosphere of ecclesiastical communion.'' In mid-March, Archbishop Jan Pieter Schotte, the Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops, sent a questionnaire to those attending the synod, including the presidents of episcopal conferences, and papal invitees. Cardinal