Vatican II and the Syllabus of Errors

[Leah]

The Syllabus of Errors seems to condemn concepts such as freedom of religion, separation of Church and State, public schools, and religious tolerance that the documents of Vatican II deem permissible. How can these seemly discrepencies be reconcilled?

[Laudate_Dominum]

Often the Syllabus of Errors is used by enemies of the Church to suggest that Vatican II is heretical. This is false for a host of reasons.

The claims must be examined in their particulars as the issues are sufficiently complex that there is not one sweeping answer.
Although the syllabus is not an official magisterial document (a point that is often overlooked), it does summarize the condemnations contained in several magisterial documents.
Since the syllabus summarizes each condemnation in one line or so, it can be difficult to understand the context and scope of each item.
When investigating a claim that something in the syllabus contradicts Vatican II several things must be considered:

Is this particular item an actual teaching or more on the pastoral level or something that can be historicized? (Not everything on the syllabus, or Vatican II is doctrinal)
What is the original context of the teaching? What kind of scope does it really have?
What is the context of the Vatican II teaching? Are there perhaps deeper principles that are common to both the teaching of Pope Pius IX and Vatican II that I'm not seeing and that are just applied differently in two different contexts?

It's been a while, but I can remember studying the syllabus in some detail (in the context of the original encyclicals) and I consider myself to be both a fan of the Syllabus and of Vatican II. And I don't feel like a walking contradiction because of it.

I will close with some wise words from Cardinal Newman.
[quote]"The wording of many of the erroneous propositions, as they are drawn up in the Syllabus, gives an apparent breadth to the matter condemned which is not found in the Pope's own words in his Allocutions and Encyclicals."
- Ven. John Henry Cardinal Newman: Letter to the Duke of Norfolk, (c. 1874)[/quote]

P.S. If you have more specific questions regarding particular items in the syllabus in relation to particular statements of Vatican II I will be happy to answer your question(s) as best as I can. And if I don't know the answer surely one of the other scholars must.

God bless.