Our University is the oldest still existing Hungarian university. Its founder, Péter Pázmány, was the most influential figure of the 17th century Catholic palingenesis, whose works prepared the way for the fame of the Hungarian literary language. His language and multi-coloured style established a convention to be followed for centuries, and his works of almost 12 thousand pages are a treasure of Hungarian literature. During the Turkish occupation, Pázmány acted "according to the desolate state of the country", when, keeping an eye on the welfare of the whole country, for the sake of the elevation of the nation, he established the university by his founding letter of 12 May 1635, which is significant in the history of the Hungarian educational system and chuch culture.
Though most of its boughs were cut, the tree itself did not dry out. Though the degree issued here was recognized by the state, and the latter thus seemingly kept its tolerance with regard to the church, yet it did everything to make people forget about Theology. Our University was awakened from its sleep during the change of the political system in 1990. This was the time for the Catholic Church to act according to its vocation in terms of higher education. The old-new institution was born through the expansion of the Academy of Theology. The Conference of the Hungarian Catholic Bishops founded Pázmány Péter Catholic University through the establishment of the Faculty of Humanities on 30th January 1992 with the license of the Apostolic Holy See. The Hungarian Parliament registered this Faculty in January 1993, and in 1995 the Conference of Hungarian Catholic Bishops established the Faculty of Law and Political Sciences, which similarly received state recognition.
In 1998 the Conference of Hungarian Catholic Bishops established a Faculty of Information Technology. The state approval for launching "technical information technology" studies was issued in 2000, while the state accreditation of the Faculty was issued in 2001. On 25th March 1999 the Congregation of Catholic Education declared the University a Catholic university as a pontifical university of the Holy See.
