The tech billionaire and co-founder of PayPal and Palantir has been holding Antichrist talks in Rome's Renaissance-era Palazzo Orsini Taverna that are rubbing the Vatican the wrong way
Plus IconNick Vivarelli
International Correspondent
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Getty Images Silicon valley titan Peter Thiel is drawing fire from the Vatican and Italian media by holding a series of lectures on the Antichrist in Rome that are reminiscent of the “South Park” episode in which he was satirized.
The tech billionaire and co-founder of PayPal and Palantir — who is known to be an early supporter and investor in the political careers of Donald Trump and JD Vance — has been holding daily talks since Sunday in the Renaissance-era Palazzo Orsini Taverna in downtown Rome.
The lectures, which are closed to the media, appear to be similar to his previously delivered talks in Paris and San Francisco and are described in an invitation as being “anchored on science and technology.” They include Thiel’s comments on “the theology, history, literature and politics of the Antichrist,” which is the Biblical term used to describe someone who opposes or denies Christ. According to The Washington Post, in the lectures Thiel argues that the Antichrist could manifest as a global government system that could take power by exploiting citizen’s fears about artificial intelligence, climate change or nuclear war.
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Last year, Thiel appeared as a character in “South Park” that drew on those types of talks and portrayed him as a satirical figure tied to the tech and political world. In one episode which went viral, Thiel is depicted as a bizarre authority on biblical prophecies and the Antichrist, often tied to the series’ political plots.
By taking his talks to the Vatican’s doorstep, the tech titan is sparking ire from several Vatican institutions such as the Pontifical St. Thomas Aquinas University, the Dominican university in Rome, that has denied they are in any way involved. The Thiel talks in Rome are organized with support from the Vincenzo Gioberti Cultural Association, which describes itself as a cultural association dedicated to the renewal of Italian political culture.
Catholic newspaper Avvenire, which has close Vatican ties, has blasted Thiel as “an agent of chaos.” On Sunday, nonreligious protesters gathered in front of Italy’s defense ministry in Rome waving a bilingual sign that read: “Peter Thiel out of Rome. The technoligarchs of war out of Rome.”
“Thiel — Silicon Valley entrepreneur, co-founder of PayPal, architect of Palantir, bankroller of decisive political campaigns in the United States — arrived in Rome not merely as a man of technology but as an interpreter of the Apocalypse,” Father Antonio Spadaro, a prominent Jesuit theologian who is close to the film world having held a series of one-on-one conversations with Martin Scorsese published in a book titled “Dialoghi sulla fede” (“Dialogues on Faith”), told Variety.
“The religious horizon is thus progressively emptied of its faith content: what matters is not the return of Christ, but the identification of the Antichrist as a concrete political force. The Gospel becomes a tool for geopolitical analysis,” Spadaro continued.
“His practical conclusion is brutal: any attempt to regulate artificial intelligence, to establish global governing bodies, to put the brakes on technological development, becomes— in this context — a preparation for the reign of the Antichrist.”
Thiel could not immediately be reached for comment.
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