Peter Thiel, the MAGA-friendly tech billionaire and devout Christian, began a run of religious meetings close to the Vatican on Sunday, raising concerns among Catholics.
Thiel, 58, has brought his series of lectures on the Antichrist to Rome. He first held these talks in San Francisco last fall, pushing the idea that a figure opposing Christ would soon emerge to create a “totalitarian one-world government.”
In his speeches, Thiel has harped against the dangers of woke policy such as environmental protections and tech industry regulations. During his San Francisco run, he called Gen Z environmental activist Greta Thunberg one of the “legionnaires of the Antichrist” and slammed Pope Leo XIV as a “woke American pope,” according to The Guardian.
Now, the former evangelical and self-described “small-o orthodox Christian” has taken his teachings to the Catholic Church’s backyard. Thiel reportedly partnered with Catholic universities in Rome to bring his invite-only series to the city, although two institutions alleged to be involved have denied this.
“With reference to several articles that have appeared in the press in recent days regarding an alleged event with Peter Thiel at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum), we would like to clarify that this event is not organized by the University, will not take place at the Angelicum, and is not part of any of our institutional initiatives,” shared the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in a statement on its website.
The Associated Press reported that Thiel’s event was “jointly organized” by the Vincenzo Gioberti Cultural Association, an Italian Christian political organization, and the Cluny Institute at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. While cultural association confirmed its involvement, the Catholic University of America told the outlet it was “not sponsoring or hosting an event featuring Peter Thiel this month in Rome.”
It’s unclear where the lectures, which will take place between March 15 and 18, are being held.
Thiel’s Antichrist talks have rankled Catholics who have viewed his and his ally Donald Trump as divisive figures in global politics. One article in the Catholic Church-affiliated newspaper L’Avvenire called the Palantir co-founder an “agent of chaos” that believes “world government processes are the Antichrist and only technological progress managed by great powers (left free from all constraints) can bring peace and security.”
“Humanitarian policies, rules imposed on technology, underestimation of the ‘natural’ violence of men and defense of the rights of the weak (criticized as “woke”) according to Thiel have in fact produced Western decadence," continued writer Milena Santerini.
A rep for Thiel did not immediately respond to request for comment.
For months, Pope Leo XIV and other leaders in the Catholic Church have been critical of Trump and his aggressive policies. He has condemned the administration’s attacks on Venezuela and Iran, praying that “the roar of bombs may cease, that weapons may fall silent, and that space may be opened for dialogue in which the voices of peoples can be heard.”
He has also torched the Trump administration for being “extremely disrespectful” to immigrants in the United States.
“We have to look for ways of treating people humanely, treating people with the dignity that they have,” the pontiff said last November. “If people are in the United States illegally, there are ways to treat that. There are courts. There’s a system of justice.”
