Third Period (September 14 to November 21, 1964)
In the period between the second and third periods, the proposed schemas were further revised based on comments from the council fathers. A number of topics were reduced to statements of fundamental propositions that could gain approval during the third period, with postconciliar commissions handling implementation of these measures. Eight religious and seven lay women observers were invited to the sessions of the third period, along with additional male lay observers.
During this period, the council fathers worked through a large volume of proposals. Schemas on ecumenism (Unitatis Redintegratio), the Eastern Rite churches (Orientalium Ecclesiarum), and the constitution of the Church (Lumen Gentium) were approved and promulgated by the Pope.
A votum or statement concerning the sacrament of marriage for the guidance of the commission revising the Code of Canon Law regarding a wide variety of juridicial, ceremonial and pastoral issues. The bishops submitted this schema with a request for speedy approval, but the Pope did not act during the council. Pope Paul also instructed the bishops to defer the topic of artificial contraception (birth control) to a commission of clerical and lay experts that he had appointed.
Schemas on the life and ministry of priests and the missionary activity of the Church were rejected and sent back to commissions for complete rewriting. Work continued on the remaining schemas, in particular those on the Church in the modern world, and religious freedom. There was controversy over revisions of the decree on religious freedom, and the failure to vote on it during the third period, but Pope Paul promised that this schema would be the first to be reviewed in the next session.
Pope Paul closed the third period by announcing a change in the eucharistic fast, and a formal declaration of Mary as "Mother of the Church," as had always been taught.
Fourth Period (September 14 to December 8, 1965)
Eleven schemas remained unfinished at the end of the third period, and commissions worked to give them their final form. Schema 13, on the Church in the modern world, was revised by a commission that worked with the assistance of laymen.
Pope Paul opened the last period of council sessions with the establishment of a Synod of Bishops. This more permanent structure was intended to preserve close cooperation of the bishops with the Pope after the council.
The first business of the fourth period was the consideration of the decree on religious freedom, which may be the most controversial of the conciliar documents. The vote was 1,997 for to 224 against (a margin that widened even farther by the time the bishop's final signing of the decree (Dignitatis Humanae). The principal work of the rest of the period was work on three documents, all of which were approved by the council fathers. The lengthened and revised pastoral constitution on the Church in the modern world (Gaudium et Spes), was followed by decrees on missionary activity (Ad Gentes) and the ministry and life of priests (Presbyterorum Ordinis).
The council also gave final approval to other documents that had been considered in earlier sessions. This included decrees on the pastoral office of bishops (Christus Dominus), the life of persons in religious orders (expanded and modified from earlier sessions)(Perfectae Caritatis), education for the priesthood (Optatam Totius), Christian education (Gravissimum Educationis) and the role of the laity (Apostolicam Actuositatem).
One of the most influential documents was Nostra Aetate, which affirmed, as did the documents of the 16th century Council of Trent, that "the Jews" as individuals are no more responsible for the death of Christ than Christians are (see Catechism of the Council of Trent, Article IV).
- True, the Jewish authorities and those who followed their lead pressed for the death of Christ; still, what happened in His passion cannot be charged against all the Jews, without distinction, then alive, nor against the Jews of today. Although the Church is the new people of God, the Jews should not be presented as rejected or accursed by God, as if this followed from the Holy Scriptures. All should see to it, then, that in catechetical work or in the preaching of the word of God they do not teach anything that does not conform to the truth of the Gospel and the spirit of Christ. Furthermore, in her rejection of every persecution against any man, the Church, mindful of the patrimony she shares with the Jews and moved not by political reasons but by the Gospel's spiritual love, decries hatred, persecutions, displays of anti-Semitism, directed against Jews at any time and by anyone.
More on this topic is available in the article on Christian-Jewish reconciliation.
A major event of the final days of the council was the act of Pope Paul and Orthodox Patriarch Athenagoras joint expression of regret for many of the past actions that had led up to the Great Schism between the western and eastern churches. On December 8, 1965, the Second Vatican Council was formally closed, with the bishops professing their obedience to the council's decrees. To help carry forward the work of the council, Pope Paul:
- had earlier formed a Papal Commission for the Media of Social Communication to assist bishops with the pastoral use of these media;
- declared a jubilee from January 1 to May 26, 1966 to urge all Catholics to study and accept the decisions of the council, and apply them in spiritual renewal;
- changed the name and procedures of the Holy Office (once the Inquisition) -- now to be known as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith;
- established postconciliar commissions for bishops and the government of dioceses, religious orders, missions, Christian education, and the role of lay persons;
- made permanent the secretariates for the Promotion of Christian Unity, for Non-Christian Religions, and for Non-Believers.