The Catholic Church makes a distinction between full and partial communion: where full communion exists, there is but one church; partial communion, on the other hand, exists where some elements of Christian faith are held in common, but complete unity on essentials is lacking. Accordingly, it sees itself as in partial communion with Protestants and in much closer, but still incomplete, communion with the Orthodox churches. It has expressed this distinction in documents such as "Unitatis redintegratio", the Second Vatican Council's decree on ecumenism, which states: "... quite large communities came to be separated from "full communion" with the Catholic Church. ...Men who believe in Christ and have been truly baptized are in communion with the Catholic Church even though this "communion is imperfect"".