Peter Thiel’s secret lectures on Antichrist in Rome spark debate

Palantir Technologies Chairman Peter Thiel on a trip to Tokyo on March 5. (The Asahi Shimbun/Getty Images/File via CNN Newsource)

Peter Thiel, the billionaire venture capitalist and MAGA donor, is in Rome this week for a series of private lectures on the Antichrist. It’s an event that the Vatican, and the pope, are treating with caution.

Thiel’s talks are closed to the media and taking place at an undisclosed location. An invitation, seen by the Associated Press, says the co-founder of PayPal and Palantir Technologies will focus on the Antichrist, a figure in Christian teaching who comes to oppose Jesus Christ before the Second Coming.

But the appearance of Thiel on the Vatican’s doorstep has raised eyebrows, given the tensions between Thiel’s thinking and that of Pope Leo XIV. Two Catholic institutions have distanced themselves from the lecture series, which continues through Wednesday.

Thiel has previously written and lectured on the subject, arguing that the Antichrist is not necessarily a person but could come as a global government system. It would take control, he has argued, by exploiting people’s fears around artificial intelligence, climate change or nuclear war.

He also has reportedly expressed concern in past lectures that U.S. Vice-President JD Vance, a Catholic convert whose early career he supported, might become “too close to the pope.” Those remarks reflect anxiety, shared by parts of the Trump coalition, about the papacy’s global reach and independent moral authority. Thiel prefers a more nationalist, technologically oriented vision, while the pope and the Holy See have repeatedly called for the strengthening of global institutions such as the United Nations.

So far, two Catholic institutions have distanced themselves from Thiel’s Rome lectures. The Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, also known as the Angelicum, denied initial reports that it would host the lectures. The Angelicum is where the Rev. Robert Prevost, the future Pope Leo, studied for a doctoral thesis in the ’80s.

The Thiel lectures are being organized jointly by the Vincenzo Gioberti Cultural Association — which aims to renew Italian political culture and make “the restoration of Catholicism as the cornerstone of national identity” — and the Cluny Institute, which is based at the Catholic University of America in Washington.

“The Catholic University of America is not sponsoring or hosting an event featuring Peter Thiel this month in Rome,” a spokesperson for the university told CNN. “The Cluny Project is an independent initiative incubated at the University.”

Francesco Sisci, an Italian analyst and commentator, said the Vatican and the pope are likely to “keep their distance” from Thiel’s lectures, but he added that the venture capitalist’s decision to come to Rome underlines a growing interest in the papacy and the Vatican among some political figures. Rome has been important to former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, who was a strong opponent of Pope Francis and even courted Jeffrey Epstein in his efforts to “take down” the pontiff.

Sisci sees Thiel as different from Bannon and as someone looking to present his ideas at the Catholic Church’s headquarters.

“The godfather of the new tech-billionaires coming to Rome is evidence of the pope’s importance and that Catholicism is in some ways back in fashion. The pope is not a remote figure anymore but more involved in American politics,” Sisci, who is director of the Appia Institute, told CNN. “As an American pope, he is likely to keep his distance (from Thiel). The Vatican will be careful not to be manipulated.”

Although more understated than his predecessors, the first U.S.-born pope has become something of a spiritual counterweight to the Trump worldview. He has raised concerns about the treatment of immigrants in the United States, called for an immediate ceasefire in the Middle East and told journalists on Monday that they must not “become a megaphone for power” during a time of war. Leo made the latter remark after U.S. President Donald Trump and his defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, strongly criticized media coverage of the Iran war.

Meanwhile, Thiel has not just offered financial backing to Vance but introduced him to the ideas of Catholic philosopher René Girard, which influenced Vance’s conversion to Catholicism. The vice-president has even cited St. Augustine, the founder of Pope Leo’s religious order, the Augustinians, when defending the Trump administration’s crackdown on migrants. Leo, however, has criticized the “inhuman treatment” of immigrants in the United States.

Christopher Lamb, CNN