EDITORIAL INVALID CONFESSION MAHONY NEEDS TO CLEAR UP ALL QUESTIONS ABOUT THE PRIEST ABUSE SCANDAL.

IN the Catholic sacrament of reconciliation, three conditions must be met for a confession to be valid: The penitent must be truly sorry, must hold back nothing and must be willing to do penance to rectify the situation.

These three conditions would seem to be a good standard by which to evaluate Cardinal Roger Mahony's latest ``confession'' - his release of records documenting the Archdiocese of Los Angeles' handling of priestly sexual-abuse cases over the course of decades.

And by these standards, Mahony falls far short of what's needed to reconcile with the people wronged by the archdiocese's shameful protection of predator priests.

Mahony says he is truly sorry, and charity says we should take him at his word. But he's done a poor job of expressing his contrition.

Last week, the cardinal sent a letter to 1,200 archdiocesan priests apologizing for his handling of defrocked priest Michael Baker, who for years preyed on children while he was shuffled from parish to parish. But why apologize merely to priests and not directly to the families and other faithful scandalized and harmed by these actions?

As for not holding anything back, here, too, the cardinal seems to come up short. The archdiocese only released the latest information after years of foot-dragging, and even now, the documents have been heavily edited. They exclude key information, like the names of the church officials directly responsible.

Finally, there is the matter of penance, of making amends for past transgressions. No matter how much money the archdiocese ends up paying in settlement claims, it will never begin to properly atone for its failings until officials accept full responsibility and come clean with the public. These are absolute preconditions of winning back the trust of a people whose faith has been badly shaken.

A valid confession isn't a public relations exercise for defusing controversy, it's about reconciliation. And in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, there will be no reconciliation until there's a lot more openness and candor.