CUA Denies Sponsoring Peter Thiel’s Controversial Antichrist Lectures
The Cluny Project’s office in Maloney Hall. Photo by Patrick D. Lewis
By Patrick D. Lewis
A series of lectures being given in Rome by billionaire Peter Thiel that have raised controversy within Catholic circles is sponsored by an institute that is part of Catholic University, The Tower has found.
The lectures, which are about “the Antichrist” and are being held in secret locations on an invite-only basis, are being sponsored by The Cluny Project. Cluny was founded in 2024 and is directed by Luke Burgis, a faculty member of Catholic University’s Tim and Steph Busch School of Business. It is primarily funded through the Templeton Foundation, according to its website.
A university spokesperson told The Tower and numerous other outlets, “The Catholic University of America is not sponsoring or hosting an event featuring Peter Thiel this month in Rome. The Cluny Project is an independent initiative incubated at the University.”
In reply to a follow-up question, the spokesperson said Cluny is an “independent initiative of Luke Burgis, Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Ciocca Center for Principled Entrepreneurship. It is funded by a grant from the Templeton Foundation. It is not listed as a University institute or center.”
However, The Cluny Project’s website, cluny.org, says, “Cluny is a project currently operating as part of The Catholic University of America, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.” The webpage goes on to direct potential donors to the Busch School’s advancement officer, and the website’s terms of service say questions should be directed to the university’s main phone number. The address given for mail-in donations is the University Advancement Division’s office in O’Connell Hall, and it says they should be marked “attention: Katie Garvey.” Garvey is a Busch School development official.
When asked about those facts, the spokesperson told The Tower, “Yes, Cluny is incubated at Catholic University, which provides administrative and fundraising infrastructure to support its work. It operates as an academically independent initiative under the principles of academic freedom.”
Thiel’s lectures have drawn controversy because of his well-known unconventional views. CNN reported that Thiel has said in the past that the Antichrist could represent a global movement against Artificial Intelligence, for which Thiel funds research and development. Also, Thiel has speculated that Vice President of the United States JD Vance could be “too close to the pope.” Thiel has donated to Vance and the MAGA movement.
Thiel, as well as Burgis, has an interest in René Girard, a now-deceased French academic whose unconventional theological and philosophical beliefs have long spurred extensive controversy. One of Girard’s central theories was that Jesus Christ was killed by humans as part of a cycle of “scapegoating” innocent people in a human drive to convince ourselves that our problems were the fault of the person killed.
Cluny sponsored the lectures along with an Italian political organization. Some reports surfaced that the lectures were being held at The Angelicum, a school in Rome operated by the Dominican order, but the school denied those rumors.
An email to Burgis generated an auto-reply saying he was on paternity leave and directing inquiries to his deputy at Cluny, Jordan Castro. As of Thursday morning, Castro had not replied to an email sent Wednesday evening.
