J.R.R. Tolkien’s masterwork The Lord of the Rings has made it into Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical — and the reference reads like a veiled rebuke of Peter Thiel, the billionaire tech investor and Tolkien superfan whose dystopian vision twists religion, governance, and freedom into instruments of domination.

Toward the end of the document, paragraph 213 of Magnifica Humanitas quotes a passage from a defining moment in the trilogy’s final installment, The Return of the King:

“It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till.”

In the encyclical, these words — which are spoken by the wizard Gandalf the White in the novel — are used to illustrate our common responsibility as humans to address the problems of our time, creating a civilization of love that our children and grandchildren can inherit.

In the book, Gandalf is trying to compel what is left of the host of men into making a last, desperate assault on the Black Gate to confront evil on its very doorstep in order to give their ultimate mission — the destruction of the Ring and peace throughout Middle-earth — any hope of succeeding.

Assuming this is an allusion to Peter Thiel, why would the Vatican target him specifically?

It’s quite likely that Thiel has been top of mind at the Vatican. His company, Palantir, is assisting the Trump administration’s mass deportation plans — inhumane and incompatible with the Gospel — through data-mining. Trump’s mass deportation plan was repudiated by Pope Francis in an unprecedented letter to the US bishops issued in early 2025.

Or maybe it’s because when asked by Ross Douthat in 2025 if he would prefer that the human race endured, Thiel paused for so long that Douthat noted the hesitation twice — before having to ask the question again. Thiel finally said yes, qualifying his answer with “there’s so many questions implicit in this.”

Thiel has flirted with the idea of transhumanism, though his brand of the ideology would rely on reversing or curing aging and remaining biologically rooted rather than digitally uploading our consciousness. The pope is deeply critical of the concept of transhumanism. In the encyclical, Leo argues that the vision behind transhumanism is problematic because “the human being is treated as something to be perfected or surpassed,” leading to the idea “that some lives are less useful, less desirable or less worthy” (MH 117).

Perhaps the Vatican has taken notice of the billionaire’s controversial, invite-only lecture series on the antichrist, which he brought to Rome this March. According to leaked recordings from a similar lecture in San Francisco last year, Thiel believes the antichrist will be someone who raises the alarm about threats deemed existential to humanity, such as AI or climate change. Curiously, Thiel seems to be consumed with the concept of the antichrist, and his obsession is so widely known that even the Comedy Central show South Park mocked it.

There is only one thing that Thiel is more obsessed with than the antichrist: The Lord of the Rings.

Thiel’s obsession with all things Middle-earth has permeated many aspects of his personal and professional life. He claims to have read the books at least 10 times. He references the saga often in his public appearances. He incorrectly referenced The Hobbit for his high school yearbook quote (it was actually a quote from the 1977 animated film based on the book). He’s created or presided over multiple companies named after different parts of The Lord of the Rings: Valar Ventures, Mithril Capital, Rivendell LLC, and the latest, Palantir, of particular note.

In The Lord of the Rings, a palantir is a seeing stone, a crystal ball, used both for communication and for seeing events past and future. The stones make multiple appearances throughout the books, though a central theme is their malleability, and the ease with which a bad faith actor can use them to manipulate other users. This is precisely what happens, as the dark lord Sauron (the main antagonist of the story) uses the palantiri to manipulate other powerful figures such as the wizard Saruman and the Steward of the kingdom of Gondor, Denethor.

A palantir provides a false sense of certainty and inevitability about the future. Sauron uses them explicitly to rob his victims of hope and agency.

Thiel’s Palantir closely mirrors its fictional counterpart. The company engages in extensive data-mining, combing the internet for information that it uses artificial intelligence to sort, compile, and present into digestible forms. Palantir saw its federal contracts nearly double to $970.5 million in 2025, according to The Hill, and is playing a central role in both Trump’s mass deportation campaign and overseas military action. According to NPR, the platform is popular with “law enforcement and the military.”

Given Thiel’s obsession with the series, the mere existence of a reference to The Lord of the Rings in a papal encyclical about AI could be reason enough to speculate that the passage was a veiled papal rebuke. But upon reviewing the context of the cited passage, the connection to Thiel becomes hard to refute.

The passage cited in Magnifica Humanitas takes place shortly after one of the saga’s defining battles — where our heroes have just fended off an unprecedented assault from Sauron before the walls of Minas Tirith, the capital city of Gondor, a great kingdom of men. Two palantiri — and two very different reactions to them — are essential in deciding the fate of all of Middle-earth.

Gondor has survived in spite of its Steward, Denethor, entrusted to guard the throne of Gondor until the king’s return. As the armies of Sauron closed in on his city, Denethor was driven to a deep sense of inevitability and despair — tricked by Sauron into believing his armies stood no chance — made possible by Denethor’s use of the palantir.

Our heroes, Aragorn (the rightful king of Gondor), Gandalf, and their allies step in to save the city, at great cost. As they tend to their wounded and regroup, Aragorn calls the remaining leaders to his tent outside the city.

Meanwhile, Frodo and Sam stand on the precipice of Mordor, the realm of Sauron and home to Mount Doom, the only place that the dark lord’s One Ring can be destroyed — an act that will end his particular brand of evil. In their way are tens of thousands of hostile orcs.

Worth noting here: Mordor is an industrial wasteland, fiery, barren, corrupted, and dark. The remaining world of Middle-earth is depicted as medieval, but pure and innocent. It is clear that in Tolkien’s legendarium, rampant industrialization and technological advancement is a destructive force, meant to be resisted.

Tolkien’s ethos here stands in stark contrast to Peter Thiel, who often warns about “technological stagnation,” advocates that technology is an alternative or even a remedy to politics, and has frequently flirted with authoritarianism and techno-feudalism.

The heroes of The Lord of the Rings stand diametrically opposed to those viewpoints.

Back before the walls of Minas Tirith, the meeting of heroes has begun. This “Last Debate” is anchored by a lengthy speech from Gandalf, who begins the meeting by recalling Denethor’s failure. He explains that the leader, who was ultimately driven to suicide, was manipulated by Sauron.

Prior to his death, and driven by paranoia about his enemies, Denethor had deluded himself into believing that he could use the palantir to subdue Sauron. Sauron instead had used the palantir to show Denethor that he is hopelessly outnumbered, intimating that even if Minas Tirith were to survive this particular battle, there would be waves and waves of orcs to come that no realm could withstand.

Though he does bemoan Denethor’s lack of mental fortitude, Gandalf confirms that what he saw in the palantir was indeed correct — there are countless forces being marshaled inside Mordor. Gandalf warns that the forces of Mordor will return like unrelenting waves.

It is at this point we learn that Aragorn has selflessly used the palantir to reveal himself to Sauron to draw attention away from Frodo and Sam. In doing so, Aragorn uses the stone to incite the dark lord to attack Gondor before Sauron is fully ready.

Aragorn’s act of courage is what allows our heroes to contemplate their next move. Sit and wait for their inevitable doom and hold out as long as possible? Or march on Mordor with what forces they have left, buying time for Frodo to destroy the Ring?

Essentially, Gandalf proposes springing a trap — with Aragorn and his forces as the bait. In response to the show of force, Sauron will empty Mordor to fight the forces of men, thereby allowing Frodo and Sam to pass through Mordor, to cast the Ring into Mount Doom.

As the leaders unanimously agree that this is their only play, the move is portrayed as a last, desperate, humble act — a Hail Mary to give their friends enough time to literally save the world. Gandalf himself explicitly states that the gambit will most likely mean death for them — but it is their best chance at safeguarding life for the rest of the world.

Tolkien presents two opposite uses of the palantiri here for us to contemplate. Denethor uses it aggressively, trying to confront Sauron directly, driven by his own hubris, insecurity, and delusion. Sauron uses all of those traits to manipulate Denethor to his death. Aragorn uses it sacrificially, offering up his own life so that others might live — so that humanity might endure. It is an act of fidelity. An act of love. An act of life — a distinctly human act.

Because of this act of heroism and selflessness, Sauron is defeated. Hope and love triumph over despair and violence.

A palantir is not an item to be celebrated or venerated. It certainly is not an item that Tolkien would ever endorse naming a company after. Instead, the objects serve as a cautionary tale — instead of attempting to see the future with any degree of certainty or manipulate reality to fit our needs, we should trust that God will handle those matters, and attend to the day-to-day of helping our fellow brothers and sisters.

That is essentially what Gandalf is saying in the quote cited by Leo in Magnifica Humanitas. Even if they succeed in defeating Sauron, Gandalf warns our heroes that they will not defeat evil. But it is still their job to defeat this evil. It is not of God to give in to nihilism or despair. Instead it is our job to uproot evil wherever we see it, with a thousand small gestures a day, to contribute meaningfully to the common good.

In the legendarium of Tolkien, the palantiri were created by Elves as an act of comfort and to empower communication and knowledge. Instead, they were used for corruption, evil, and manipulation.

Does that sound familiar to you? Maybe it did to Leo as well.