Abstract

Nations are at once associating and dividing peoples. The fact that peoples are living on the same territory but above all that they have cultural, social and religious traditions constitutes factors of union; but at the same time they see in the traditions of other nations a threat to their identity and survival. The consequence is that many small nations are crushed in the present world, a fact that endangers the human progress of many. John Paul II has raised this problem before the General Assembly of the U.N. and asked for the spread of a philosophy of tolerance and the creation of ad hoc structures at the national and international levels. The present article goes back to the beginning of the question and underlines some of the conditions for solving it.