Describe to contributions of the Second Vatican Council.

The council also promulgated decrees (documents on practical questions) on the pastoral duties of bishops, ecumenism, the Eastern-rite churches, the ministry and life of priests, the education for the priesthood, the religious life, the missionary activity of the church, the apostolate of the laity, and the media of social communication. Furthermore, declarations (documents on particular issues) on religious freedom, the church’s attitude toward non-Christian religions, and on Christian education were produced. These documents reflected the renewal in various areas of church life begun decades before Pope John-biblical, ecumenical, liturgical, lay apostolate. The impulse of the documents and the council deliberations in general had by the early 1970s been felt in nearly every area of church life and had set in motion many changes that may not have been foreseen by the council fathers.