I followed this story since last year, when Nienstedt was cleared about another incident. My own opinion is that I don’t think the real story will be known of a long time.
However, since Nienstedt has been the Archbishop of Minneapolis-St. Paul, several lukewarm Catholics have been unhappy with him, and I respect Nienstedt for upholding Church teaching on several issues, even sending out a DVD on the dangers of so called same-sex marriage.
Quite a few pundits and strong Catholics feel that the investigation into the Archbishop was fueled by the mainstream media, who had a personal vendetta with the Archbishop, and it’s possible that lukewarm Catholics from within the Church assisted in this unfortunate downfall. The Fishwrap wasn’t much help either.
Not long after Nienstedt resigned, within the hour MSNBC and the Huffington Post made it front page news. The same was done with Bishop Finn. IMHO, some of this is an attack on these two bishops because each had a reputation for orthodoxy.