MAGA billionaire Peter Thiel has angered the Vatican by hosting a four–part lecture series in Rome warning that the Antichrist is coming and will subject humanity to a ‘one–world’ government.
Thiel, 58, has raised concerns for months about what he views as an imminent threat, according to The New York Times.
The tycoon, who made his money by setting up PayPal, has warned of the ‘occult forces [that] are ceaselessly at work, intent on destroying what remains of the West,’ the outlet reported.
The Antichrist is described in the Bible as a conniving figure who opposes Jesus Christ and seeks to challenge human allegiance to God.
Thiel, the chairman of big data and artificial intelligence giant Palantir, has argued the Antichrist will manipulate humanity by promising solutions to contemporary existential threats.
He has earmarked topics like AI, environmental crises and bioweapons as pathways to that outcome.
But rather than a single person, Thiel has suggested the Antichrist could take the shape of a centralized global government that gradually strips away individual rights and freedoms.
Thiel’s secretive conference, titled ‘The Biblical Antichrist’, began Sunday and is slated to run until Wednesday.
Thiel’s views were described as ‘a theological–apocalyptic framework as disturbing as it is structured’ by Italian Catholic priest Paolo Benanti, who previously advised Pope Francis on AI.
In an essay titled ‘American heresy: Should we burn Peter Thiel?’, Benanti argued that Thiel’s views about the Antichrist amounted to ‘heresy.’
‘In other words: either a global technocratic regime imposing salvation by falsehood, or total annihilation,’ he wrote about Thiel’s views.
A newspaper owned by the Italian bishops’ conference, Avvenire, called Thiel ‘the heart of darkness of the digital world.’
Another essay in the publication accused Thiel of seeking ‘absolute power managed by technocrats supported by artificial intelligence, without which, he argues, the state will never function.’
About one hundred guests have been spotted at the lecture series, according to Italian newspaper La Repubblica. Most appeared to be Italian businessmen and politicians.
The talks’ audience has largely been made up of younger men, plus some women and a number of American priests and students.
Thiel spoke for about two hours on the first day of the seminar and touched on the future of AI.
‘It’s not the solution to all evils,’ he was quoted as saying by the outlet. ‘But it shouldn’t be demonized.’
Thiel, who is worth about $23.7billion, has frequently spoken about the Antichrist in recent years.
He gave similar talks in Paris in January and in San Francisco last year, which drew less pushback.
The Palantir chairman’s Rome lectures were reportedly going to be held at the Pontifical St. Thomas Aquinas University, known as the Angelicum.
That was where Pope Leo XIV, who was then Robert Prevost, wrote his canon law doctoral thesis.
However, the university distanced itself from Thiel’s series after pushback in Italy.
‘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 university said in a statement.
Last June, Thiel said that his specific fear about the Antichrist was a ‘one–world totalitarian state.’
‘I would say the default political solution people have for all these existential risks is one–world governance,’ he told The New York Times.
Thiel predicted that the Antichrist would ‘talk about existential risk’ incessantly and push for widespread regulations, effectively forming a centralized government.
‘The way the Antichrist would take over the world is you talk about Armageddon nonstop,’ he said.
He added that the supposed biblical figure would not be an ‘evil tech genius’ with revolutionary inventions.
‘People are way too scared for that,’ Thiel said. ‘In our world, the thing that has political resonance is the opposite. The thing that has political resonance is: We need to stop science. We need to just say “stop” to this.’
Rather than a figure like Dr. Strangelove out of the 1964 black comedy film, Thiel said the Antichrist was ‘far more likely’ to resemble Greta Thunberg.
When Thiel was asked whether he was concerned that he or Palantir could represent the very concerns he posed, Thiel shot that down.
‘I obviously don’t think that that’s what I’m doing,’ he said.
Thiel’s Palantir recently signed an agreement with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement to streamline the process of identifying and deporting targets.
Thiel is also known to be close to US Vice President JD Vance, donating millions of dollars into Vance’s successful primary race for the US Senate.
The lectures were jointly organized by an Italian organization, the Vincenzo Gioberti Cultural Association, and the Cluny Institute at the Catholic University of America in Washington DC.
The Italian group said in a statement that hosting Thiel was a ‘special honor and a gift of providence.
Thiel was branded ‘one of the most original thinkers of our time,’ while a tongue–in–cheek note mentioned that he had been nicknamed the ‘heart of darkness of Silicon Valley.’
The Daily Mail has reached out to Thiel’s listed spokesperson, as well as the Vincenzo Gioberti Cultural Association and the Cluny Institute for comment.