The billionaire is speaking at private closed door events this week, prompting concern in clerical circles. Details about attendees and venue remain undisclosed.
Peter Thiel, a billionaire venture investor and donor to the MAGA movement, is in Rome this week for a series of private lectures on the Antichrist. The event has drawn caution from the Vatican and the pope himself.
According to the Associated Press (AP), the lectures are closed to the press and take place at an undisclosed location. In an invitation seen by AP, it states that the PayPal and Palantir Technologies co-founder will focus on the Antichrist, a figure in Christian teaching who appears before the Second Coming.
Thiel’s appearance at the Vatican’s doorstep has sparked heightened interest, given the differences between his views and those of Pope Leo XIV. Two Catholic institutions have distanced themselves from the lecture series, which runs through midweek.
Thiel has previously written and lectured on this topic, arguing that the Antichrist is not necessarily a person and could appear in the form of a global governmental system. He believed that such a system would seize control, using people’s fears of artificial intelligence, climate change, or nuclear war.
Context of the event and the Vatican’s position
Also, according to reports, he expressed concerns that Vice President J. D. Vance, a Catholic convert whose earlier career was supported by him, might become ‘too close to the pope’. Such remarks reflect concerns within part of Trump’s coalition about global influence and the independent moral authority of the Papacy. Thiel favors a more nationalist, tech-oriented vision, while the pope and the Holy See have repeatedly urged strengthening global institutions such as the United Nations.
Currently, two Catholic institutions have distanced themselves from the Rome lectures connected to Thiel. The Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, also known as Angelicum, initially denied previous reports that it would host the lectures. Angelicum is the place where Fr. Robert Prevo, a future Pope Leo, studied for his doctoral dissertation in the 1980s.
The Thiel lectures are organized jointly with the Vincenzo Gioberti Cultural Association – which aims to renew Italian political culture and make “the revival of the Catholic faith as the cornerstone of national identity” – and the Cluny Institute, based at the Catholic University of America in Washington.
The Catholic University of America does not sponsor or host an event featuring Peter Thiel this month in Rome, a university spokesperson told CNN. The Cluny Project is an independent initiative incubated at the university.
Francesco Sisi, an Italian analyst and commentator, noted that the Vatican and the pope are likely to distance themselves from Thiel’s lectures, but his decision to come to Rome underscores growing interest among some political figures in the papacy and the Vatican. Rome mattered to former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, who was an active opponent of Pope Francis and even tried to recruit Jeffrey Epstein in his efforts to “destroy” the pontiff.
Sisi sees Thiel as distinct from Bannon and from those who seek to present their ideas at the Catholic Church’s residence.
The godfather of the new tech billionaires arriving in Rome is evidence of the pope’s importance and that Catholicism, in some respects, has come back into fashion. The pope is no longer a distant figure but has become more involved in American politics. As an American pope, he will likely keep his distance (from Thiel). The Vatican will be careful not to be manipulated by him.
– Francesco Sisi
Although Thiel’s initial public statements were more restrained than those of his predecessors, the current pope Leo XIV serves as a spiritual counterweight to Trump’s worldview. He has voiced concerns about the treatment of immigrants in the United States, urged an immediate stop to hostilities in the Middle East, and told reporters that during war one should not “be a megaphone for power.”
Thiel not only provided financial backing to Vance but also introduced him to the ideas of Catholic philosopher René Girard, which influenced Vance’s conversion to Catholicism. Vance also cited Saint Augustine, the spiritual founder of the Augustinian order, Leo, in defending his immigration policy. However, Leo was critical of the “inhuman treatment” of immigrants in the United States.