Open Veils · Answer
A Secret Meeting in Rome
Peter Thiel convened a closed-door, undisclosed-venue conference in Rome exploring the theological figure of the Antichrist — a gathering so charged that every Catholic university initially linked to it publicly denied involvement. The venue was ultimately identified as the historic Palazzo Orsini-Taverna on Monte Giordano, a site Dante himself referenced in the Inferno. Co-organized with the Associazione Culturale Vincenzo Gioberti, the event drew participants from academia, technology, and religious circles — with no press permitted and no official Vatican engagement.
Evidence
- According to reporting from PBS News (March 13, 2026) and CNN (March 16, 2026), the invitation-only event ran Sunday through Wednesday at an undisclosed Rome location, with an AP-obtained invitation confirming Thiel's focus on the Antichrist as a figure in Christian eschatology preceding the Second Coming.
- Reuters (March 15, 2026) confirmed that the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas — the Angelicum, where future Pope Leo studied in the 1980s — denied hosting the event.
- Wired Italia (March 17, 2026) identified the venue as Palazzo Orsini-Taverna — a layered medieval complex on the artificial hill of Monte Giordano, cited in Canto XVIII of Dante's Inferno as a waypoint for 1300 Jubilee pilgrims.
- No meeting was scheduled between Thiel and Pope Leo, per the pontiff's official agenda, and no confirmed contact with Italian PM Meloni was reported.
- Thiel, co-founder of Palantir — a firm simultaneously negotiating data contracts with the British NHS and reportedly in contact with the Italian government — was delivering lectures on a figure Christianity identifies as the ultimate adversary of its savior, steps from the Vatican.