WELL, THEY WERE PRACTICING OMERTA:

A defiant Frank Keating took another swipe at some Roman Catholic bishops Monday, defending his comments that compared church leaders to the mafia as he officially resigned as head of a panel keeping tabs on the prelates’ sex abuse reforms.

“My remarks, which some bishops found offensive, were deadly accurate. I make no apology,” the former Oklahoma governor wrote in his resignation letter to Bishop Wilton Gregory, president of the U.S. hierarchy.

“To resist grand jury subpoenas, to suppress the names of offending clerics, to deny, to obfuscate, to explain away; that is the model of a criminal organization, not my church.”

And speaking of a “culture of impunity,” there’s this:

The bishop of Phoenix, who was granted immunity this month from prosecution in the Roman Catholic Church sex abuse scandal, was questioned on Monday in connection with a fatal hit-and-run accident over the weekend, police said on Monday.

They said Bishop Thomas O’Brien, 67, was co-operating with investigations into the death of a man hit by two cars in the city on Saturday night.

Police said witnesses identified the first car and that checks led them to the bishop’s car, whose windshield showed signs of damage.

I think the Church has a serious personnel problem.

UPDATE: Reader Andrew Brooks sends this link to a story featuring a picture of the Bishop’s windshield. Ouch! There’s no way he didn’t notice that when it happened.