Because you know Cardinal Law personally I can understand that you feel it was a vendetta.
In fact, one of the editors of the Globe who I know personally and some others whose names you would recognize who I know personally were all pressured by the Cardinal to cover up the story. All of them were Catholic and all of them were horrified by what had been going on and what the Cardinal was pressuring them to do.
You do know, don't you, that the Attorney General, who issued the report estimating that one thousand young men had been abused, sent state troopers to Cardinal Law's mansion in Chestnut Hill to serve him with papers. As luck would have it the person answering the door claimed the Cardinal was not at home to be served the papers. The Cardinal flew first class to Rome less than 24 hours later.
As events unfolded it may have appeared to be a vendetta. In reality most people in Massachusetts were in denial about the widespread abuse, they couldn't believe that the very people they trusted with their children would do such a thing. Then when hounded by a Prince of the Church to take part in a cover-up they were disgusted.
The Cardinal doesn't come back to the U.S. to visit. Do you think it might have something to do with being arrested if he returns?
Cardinal Law was living in the US, in Maryland, in fact, for a couple of years after all this occurred. If they truly wanted to arrest him, they knew where he was. He had done nothing for which to be arrested, and they knew it. The media constantly beat that 'running away' drum, but it was bogus.