Kuifje als katholieke held. Het andere gezicht van het katholiek sociaal denken

This article asks whether the comic Tintin can be considered as representing Catholic values. It demonstrates that the comic originates in conservative and reactionary milieus in Belgian Catholicism. Hergé (ps. for Georges Rémi) designed Tintin for the children’s weekly of a newspaper that, in this period, shared its main themes with the Catholic fascist movement Rex: anti-communism, anti-capitalism, anti-semitism and the fear of ‘secret societies’. The monarchy, however, is sustained, as was common within a more conservative milieu. Both milieus advocated a more important role for the Roman-Catholic Church in the public domain. During World War II, the adventures become more fictional. Since then, early editions have been reworked from that perspective. In this way, Tintin has lost much of its politically and economically engaged Catholicism in the eyes of contemporary readers.