extended to 8 December 1966) to urge all Catholics to study and accept the decisions of the council and apply them in spiritual renewal. He also issued a motu proprio reforming the Holy Office. The reform was fairly minor: the office's name was changed to Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and procedures were set in place ensuring that theologians accused of deviating from Church teachings would have a hearing before any action was taken against them (a procedural safeguard that did not exist up to that point). December 7 was the day for the promulgation of the 4 remaining schemas: they became the Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et spes, the decree on the Ministry and Life of Priests Presbyterorum ordinis, the decree on the Missionary Activity of the Church Ad gentes, and the declaration on religious freedom Dignitatis humanae. Before the promulgation, the Council Fathers witnessed a moving moment in the history of Christianity. A Joint Declaration by Pope Paul and Patriarch Athenagoras of Constantinople was read out, deploring the mutual excommunications of 1054 which resulted in the Great Schism between the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches, recognizing the responsibility of both parties for the separation and promising to work for complete communion between the two Churches. This was followed by the reading of the Pope's Apostolic Letter lifting the Catholic Church's excommunication of the Orthodox in 1054. At the same time, in the Patriarchal cathedral in Istanbul, the Joint Declaration was read out in Greek and the Orthodox excommunication of the Catholics was lifted. December 8: the final day of the council had arrived. A huge crowd, estimated at 300,000 people, gathered in St. Peter's Square for an outdoor mass closing the council. The mass was broadcast worldwide by radio and television. The Pope's homily was addressed to all humanity because for the Church “no one is a stranger, no one is excluded, no one is distant”. Mass was followed by a series of messages (in French) addressed to various categories of people, including heads of government, women, workers, young people, and the poor and sick. The Secretary General of the Council then read the Apostolic Letter declaring the Council concluded, and instructing that “everything the Council decreed be religiously and devoutly observed by all the faithful”. The Pope gave his blessing to all present and dismissed them: “In the name of