The Pastorales Forum was founded by Paul M. Zulehner in 1989, who has since been the chairman of the association. Cardinal Franz König held the honorary guardianship of the Pastorales Forum from its founding until his death in 2004.

The idea for the establishing of the association was the result of numerous encounters between representatives of the churches in the context of the ‘real existing socialism’ and students at the Institute of Pastoral Theology at the Catholic Faculty of the University of Vienna. These experiences led after the turning point (1989) to the decision to use the existing contacts and cultivate them in a new way.