Peter Thiel’s lecture on the Antichrist has develop into one of many hottest tickets in Rome | EUROtoday

A sequence of lectures on the Antichrist, delivered by Silicon Valley tech billionaire Peter Thiel, has develop into some of the sought-after and controversial occasions in Rome.

The invitation-only convention, working from Sunday to Wednesday, has prompted Catholic universities initially linked to the gathering to disclaim any official involvement.

Thiel, a co-founder of PayPal and Palantir – the data-mining agency that has assisted the Trump administration’s migrant deportation crackdown – can also be an early donor to Vice President JD Vance’s political profession.

He has a long-standing curiosity within the apocalyptic idea of the Antichrist, having beforehand written and lectured on the topic.

In a November essay for the Catholic journal First ThingsThiel mused: “Christians debated these prophecies for millennia. Who was the Antichrist? When would he arrive? What would he preach?” The dialogue of such a profound theological idea by a outstanding tech determine, held within the Vatican’s neighborhood, has confirmed notably divisive.

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Initially, the lectures had been reportedly going to be held the Pontifical St. Thomas Aquinas University, the Dominican college in Rome recognized colloquially because the Angelicum. It is greatest recognized as of late because the place the place a younger priest named Robert Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV, wrote his canon regulation doctoral thesis.

But as phrase started to flow into within the Italian media about alleged secret lectures on the Antichrist by Thiel on the pope’s alma mater, the Angelicum took its distance:

“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,” the college stated in an announcement on its web site.

According to an announcement for the occasion seen by The Associated Press, the lectures had been “jointly organized” by an Italian group, the Vincenzo Gioberti Cultural Association, and the Cluny Institute on the Catholic University of America in Washington.

The Gioberti group, which describes itself as a cultural affiliation devoted to the renewal of Italian political tradition, confirmed it was concerned. The affiliation, named for a nineteenth century Italian Catholic priest-philosopher, stated in an announcement it believed in selling analysis and encounters “based on the great tradition of classical and Christian thought. We believe this heritage is fundamental to addressing the crisis engulfing the contemporary West.”

But CUA distanced itself.

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

The Cluny Institute is a brand new initiative of the CUA to carry collectively leaders from the worlds of academia, faith and expertise. In 2023, CUA hosted Thiel at its Washington campus for a chat on René Girard, the French educational.

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Thiel is thought to be considerably obsessive about the Antichrist — the Biblical time period used to explain somebody who opposes or denies Christ — and Armageddon — the Biblical remaining battle between good and evil. Thiel speaks of the ideas by way of the alternatives dealing with humanity to confront the existential dangers of the world in the present day.

The Rome lectures seem to observe the blueprint of a four-part lecture sequence he gave in San Francisco final September. Some of the invites circulating in Rome, for instance, copy the outline of the San Francisco occasion.

“His remarks will be anchored on science and technology, and will comment on the theology, history, literature and politics of the Antichrist. Religious thinkers upon whom Peter will draw include René Girard, Francis Bacon, Jonathan Swift, Carl Schmitt and John Henry Newman,” stated one invitation.

Thiel, who co-founded PayPal in 1998, and different entrepreneurs of that period had been a part of a gaggle dubbed the “PayPal Mafia,” together with Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman, and YouTube co-founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen.

After PayPal was bought to eBay in 2002 for $1.5 billion, Thiel then based the hedge fund Clarium Capital Management and helped launch Palantir Technologies, which not too long ago inked an settlement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to streamline the method of figuring out and deporting individuals the company is concentrating on.

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Thiel was a key advisor and donor to U.S. President Donald Trump throughout his first administration and has retained some ties to the White House. Palantir can also be one of many donors to the White House’s ballroom mission and David Sacks, who labored with Thiel at PayPal, can also be chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

Thiel can also be recognized to be near Vance. He poured hundreds of thousands of {dollars} into Vance’s profitable major race for the U.S. Senate, from the place Trump named him working mate and eventual vp. Some see Thiel as a mentor to Vance, a Catholic convert and essentially the most high-profile Catholic in U.S. politics.

Vance’s theological justification for the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrants, primarily based on an historical Christian idea of the order of affection, obtained a well-known slapdown from Pope Francis simply earlier than he died.

A couple of months earlier than he was elected pope, Prevost shared an article from a Catholic publication from his now dormant account on X with the headline, “JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for others.”

Vance attended Leo’s set up and later had an viewers with him, throughout which he delivered a letter from Trump inviting Leo to go to.