A decade later the Globe ran a series on all the people who had been falsely accused and spent all that time in jail because they'd been caught up in the abuse hysteria.
Think about that.
These things happen anywhere when one person's testimony pits them against anothers' where evidence is negligible. Oftentimes it becomes a witchhunt, and I agree... this isn't what our justice system was meant to become. And on top of that, there's no love lost between parts of our legal system and that of the Catholic Church. It's been that way here and abroad for a long, long time and I don't see that changing anytime soon. That being said, I still think that if someone points out a fault of mine, be it imagined or factual, it's in my best interest to analyze their viewpoint and see if there's anything to correct, if I want to correct it if there is, and if I CAN. Introspection is most easily started from outside. It's no different with an organization.
In this process of self-analyzation, the Catholic Church seems to be saying to a great many people that there is no problem with Cardinal Law, which a large number of people are going to take offense to. Defend him, fine. Defend the church's relatively silent position, fine. But realize there are going to be people that don't see things your way, and they aren't necessarily idiots for entertaining a contrary view.