Before delving into Peter Thiel's ideological framework, it is essential to restore the term "heresy" to its original meaning, freeing it from its common understanding of blasphemy or mere doctrinal error, and thus restoring the dignity of its Greek etymology. Hairesis originally signifies a "choice," an option—the act of grasping a part by distinguishing it from the rest. In its deepest philosophical sense, heresy is therefore not the negation of truth, but the isolation of a partial truth, detached from the relational fabric of the whole and elevated to the status of an absolute principle. It is the absolutization of a fragment separated from the harmony of the whole: a particular intuition about human nature or social dynamics which, deprived of the necessary checks and balances imposed by the complexity of reality, becomes all-encompassing—and, ultimately, tyrannical.

It is from this angle that we must read Thiel's vision: not as a simple rejection of Western values ​​but as the pathological radicalization of some of their components — competition, technology, the individual — which, erected as the sole compass, lead to results that are radically divergent from the common democratic project.

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A neo-medieval future is emerging in which democratic politics is nothing more than a vestige and where all essential services for life in society — including security — are privatized and administered by corporate entities.

In this universe appears a new aristocracy of "sovereign individuals": a cognitive elite detached from geography, operating in a cyberspace free from jurisdictions, leaving behind a mass of individuals who have become superfluous.

The invitation-only conference in Rome, from Sunday to Wednesday, has proven so controversial that the Catholic universities initially associated with it have all denied official involvement.

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Initially, the lectures were reportedly going to be held the Pontifical St. Thomas Aquinas University, the Dominican university in Rome known colloquially as the Angelicum. It is best known these days as the place where a young priest named Robert Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV, wrote his canon law doctoral thesis.

According to an announcement for the event seen by The Associated Press, 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.

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“The Catholic University of America is not sponsoring or hosting an event featuring Peter Thiel this month in Rome,” a university spokesperson told AP. “The Cluny Project is an independent initiative incubated at the university.”