Former Oklahoma governor Frank Keating has quit as head of a panel examining the extent of sex abuse by Roman Catholic priests after accusing leading American bishops of acting like the mafia in dealing with the scandal.
A spokesman for Keating said he would send a letter of resignation this week, media reports said.
The action followed a bitter dispute after Keating told the Los Angeles Times that Cardinal Roger Mahony, the archbishop of Los Angeles, had engaged in "foot dragging" when he had tried to get cooperation in writing a report on the scandal that erupted in early 2001.
Keating headed a national review board appointed to oversee how the church adheres to policy decisions made after the scandal emerged. He said Mahony had obstructed his bid to access statistics.
"To act like La Cosa Nostra and hide and suppress, I think is very unhealthy," Keating said, in comments published Friday in the Times.
Mahony said in a statement: "Governor Keating's remarks were both irresponsible and uninformed. I have championed a fuller, deeper and more accurate statistical study."
The Conference of Catholic Bishops is to meet in Saint Louis, Missouri on June 19-20 when the scandal is against expected to dominate.