JAKARTA - US billionaire and technology investor Peter Thiel held a series of closed lectures in Rome discussing the concept of the Antichrist, sparking attention and criticism from the Catholic Church.
Quoted from Reuters, Sunday, March 15, this invitation-only conference begins on Sunday and is scheduled to last until Wednesday. The event is not open to the media and the location of the organizer is also not announced publicly.
According to the organizers quoted by a number of media, the participants present were from the academic, technological, and religious circles.
Peter Thiel is one of the founders of Palantir Technologies, an artificial intelligence software company that has close ties to the United States defense and intelligence agencies.
In recent years, Thiel has become increasingly active discussing religious and philosophical issues.
Last year, he held a similar series of discussions in San Francisco that discussed the possibility of the Antichrist appearing on the global stage.
According to his view, the figure of the Antichrist has the potential to emerge by offering the formation of a single world government with the promise of solving major threats such as nuclear war, artificial intelligence, or disasters due to climate change.
Thiel, who is now 58, was raised in an Evangelical Christian family and has often stated that Christian teachings greatly influenced his view of the world.
Thiel's visit to Rome also caught the attention of Pope Leo, the leader of the Catholic Church who is known to be critical of a number of right-wing policies in the United States.
Pope Leo also warned several times about the potential dangers of the development of artificial intelligence.
A number of Catholic universities in Rome were rumored to be hosting the conference, but the campus denied the speculation.
The Vatican's official agenda also did not list a meeting between Thiel and Pope Leo.
Called "Prolonged Bidah Action"The harsh criticism came from Paolo Benanti, a pastor who became a Vatican advisor on artificial intelligence issues.
In an essay published on Saturday on the website Le Grand Continent, Benanti called Thiel a "political theologian" of the Silicon Valley technology world.
He assessed that Thiel's ideas and activities could be seen as a form of opposition to the modern liberal consensus.
"All of Thiel's actions can be read as a prolonged heretical act against the liberal consensus," Benanti wrote in his essay.
The post even had a provocative title: "American heresy: should Peter Thiel be burned at the stake?"
Similar criticism also came from the newspaper L'Avvenire, which is owned by the Italian bishops' conference.
In a number of articles published this week, the media warned that technology leaders should not determine their own ethical limits without public supervision.
The government, according to the article, must maintain democratic oversight of digital platforms as well as fight the spread of disinformation.
Conservative Political NetworkThiel is known to still have close ties with a number of political figures in Washington, including US Vice President JD Vance who is also a Catholic convert.
His presence in Rome follows a series of visits by figures associated with the US conservative movement to Italy.
Some of the names who previously came include Steve Bannon, Elon Musk, and JD Vance.
However, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's official agenda does not include plans to meet with Thiel during her visit to Rome.
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