EN
John Paul II in his writings repeatedly pointed to the problems that affect both individual man and entire nations. The twentieth anniversary of Pope Paul VIʼs encyclical Populorum Progressio has become an opportunity for John Paul II to document the predicament of his predecessor to analyze the pains of the modern world. One of the most serious problems of world-wide perceived by the pope in the mid-eighties of the twentieth century in the encyclical Sollicitudo rei socialis was the so- Social question. The number of countries on the way of development far exceeded the number of developed countries, economic and cultural gap between the south and north so called. The south was still deepening. The key to resolving this global crisis is, according to John Paul II, the interpersonal and international solidarity. According to the Pope, only through mutual multidimensional and multifaceted assistance and cooper-ation is the integral development of every individual and the development of entire nations and states.