The Pontifical University of the Holy Cross realizes the dream of St. Josemaria Escriva to set up a center of University studies in Rome that would serve the whole Church through a broad and comprehensive work of research and formation in the ecclesiastical sciences (philosophy, theology, and canon law). St. Josemaria envisioned this university uniquely contributing to the Church's mission of evangelization in the whole world.

That dream coincided with John Paul II's conviction that a new pontifical university was needed to address the demands of the New Evangelization in the late 20th century and into the 21st. At the highest levels of academic formation in the universal Church, the Holy Father saw the need not only for a world-class academic institution dedicated to research and formation in the ecclesiastical sciences, but one that would imbue all of its formation with the universal call to holiness and the critical role of the laity in bringing the world to Christ.