Concerning the Greek Orthodox Church, steady movement was made to reconcile the East-West Schism. On 30 November 1894, Pope Leo XIII publishes the Apostolic Letter "Orientalium Dignitas" (On the Churches of the East) safeguarding the importance and continuance of the Eastern traditions for the whole Church. On 7 December 1965, a Joint Catholic-Orthodox Declaration of His Holiness Pope Paul VI and the Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras I was issued lifting the mutual excommunications of 1054.