The Seal and the State

The Seal and the State: An Interview with Rev. Timothy J. Mockaitis, author of The Seal: A Priest's Story | Carl E. Olson | Ignatius Insight | September 17, 2009

On April 22, 1996, Fr. Timothy J. Mockaitis, a priest of the Archdiocese of Portland, Oregon, heard the confession of inmate (and eventually convicted murderer) Conan Wayne Hale in the Lane County Jail in Eugene, Oregon. What he didn't know until a few days later was that the confession had been taped. That marked the start of an intense and protracted legal battle, the story of which is detailed in Fr. Mockaitis's book, The Seal: A Priest's Story (Xlibris, 2008), which includes a foreword by Francis Cardinal George.

The story is of particular interest to me. My wife and I first met Fr. Mockaitis a few months before the confession was taped. We were newly married Evangelical Protestants who were interested in the Catholic  Church and just happened to be living across the street from St. Paul Catholic Church in Eugene, where Fr. Mockaitis was pastor at the time. We got to know Fr. Mockaitis a bit more the following year as we went through the RCIA program at the parish; he attended nearly every meeting, despite having to spend much time dealing with the taped confession debacle. And in April 1997, he received us into the Catholic Church, confirming us and giving us Holy Communion.

Fr. Mockaitis's book provides a unique and well-written perspective on the entire matter, along with plenty of food for thought about Church-State relations and the fragility of religious freedom. I recently interviewed Fr. Mockaitis, who is now pastor at Queen of Peace Catholic Church in Salem, Oregon, about the book and his experiences.

Ignatius Insight: When you heard the confession of Conan Hale on April 22, 1996, did you sense that anything was different from your previous visits to the jail? When did you first learn that something was amiss?

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