I’m not suggesting that Pope Leo—the Vicar of Christ, the Bishop of Rome—would stoop to anything quite so base as “trolling” Peter Thiel. But I’m also not not suggesting it, if you see what I mean.

How else to explain the novel appearance of Gandalf, the pipe-smoking wizard, in one of Catholicism’s most important documents? Perhaps Leo, who was born and raised in Chicago before spending decades in Peru, is simply a big Tolkien buff. Or perhaps he’s sending a message: “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.”

The Gandalf quote feels more pointed when you realize how Tolkien is valorized in conservative tech circles today. Peter Thiel, a powerful figure in such circles and a Tolkien fanboy in the worst way, might be getting his first taste of that famous wizard’s wisdom.

As far back as 2012, people were running articles on how “Peter Thiel, the first outside investor in Facebook, is a huge fan of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings series of fantasy books.”

Fellowship of the bling—maybe it’s time for Thiel to put down his hobbit figurines and face his destiny.