Who caused the delay?

It seems that the retired Archbishop Rembert Weakland, former head of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, in an interview with the BBC stated that he thought it took the Vatican took too long to address the child sexual abuse case of the late Rev. Lawrence Murphy who was accused of abusing many of his charges during his time running a school for the deaf in Milwaukee in the 1950's, '60's and '70's. (story here)
This is in regards to the 2-year span between the time that Archbishop Weakland sent a letter to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1996 and the recommendation in 1998 by the Congregation to not pursue canonical proceedings against Murphy who was not in public ministry, had no allegations of misbehavior in the intervening 25 years, and was in poor health. Indeed, Murphy died a few months later.
Isn't it disingenuous of the former Archbishop to make a claim of an unwarranted delay on the part of the Vatican in responding to his letter, when he had been Archbishop of Milwaukee since 1977, or about 19 years before he got around to sending the letter in the first place?