Leo XIV and Meloni disavowed: Rome finds out whether to burn billionaire Thiel at the stake

American billionaire venture capitalist Peter Thiel launched a series of closed lectures in Rome on the concept of the Antichrist. This is reported by Reuters.

It is noted that the event started today and is closed to the press.

"The invitation-only conference, which lasts until Wednesday, is closed to the press, and the venue has not been publicly disclosed. The organizers quoted in the media claim that the participants represent academic, technological and religious circles," the agency reports.

Thiel, co-founder of Palantir Technologies, a company closely associated with the US defense and intelligence agencies, engaged in AI software, Thiel has been paying more and more attention to religious and philosophical ideas in recent years, the publication says. Last year he held a similar event in San Francisco, which considered the possibility that the Antichrist could appear on the world stage.

Thiel's visit attracted the attention of the Roman Catholic Church. Catholic universities in Rome have denied media speculation that they could host the event. According to the pope's official schedule, a meeting between Thiel and Leo XIV is not scheduled.

"All of Thiel's actions may ... be perceived as a protracted act of heresy against the liberal consensus: a challenge to the very foundations of civil coexistence, which he now considers obsolete," Father Paolo Benanti, who advises the pope on artificial intelligence, wrote in an essay for the newspaper Le Grand Continent yesterday.

The essay was published under the title "American Heresy: Should Peter Thiel be burned at the Stake?".

According to the agency, Thiel maintains close ties with representatives of Washington, including US Vice President Jay D. Vance. His appearance in Rome followed a series of visits to Italy by prominent figures associated with the US conservative movement, including Steve Bannon, Elon Musk and the same Vance.

It is noted that, according to the working schedule of Italian Prime Minister Giorgi Meloni, she, like the pope, has not scheduled a meeting with Thiel.