Don't you find it problematic that the only reason Thiel can organize these lectures is because he is a billionaire? Is he a bona fide scholar on the subject? Would any tenured theology scholar be welcome to hold the same lectures at the Vatican?

I guess that's what you get for electing an American as the Pope. /s

The lectures were not given in the Vatican but somewhere nearby, and if you read the article you would see that all the Catholic institutions names denied involved with the lectures.

He didn't give lectures at Vatican, not even at the Catholic university close to Vatican, and even Catholic University of America didn't have anything to do with it.

I am very much not a billionaire; but I can hire a village hall and give a lecture on the antichrist. I may have to work a little harder to get as much press coverage but that is not what is stopping me.