Roger Michael Mahony is an American cardinal and retired prelate of the Catholic Church who served as archbishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles in California from 1985 to 2011. Before his appointment, he served as an auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Fresno from 1975 to 1980 and bishop of the Diocese of Stockton from 1980 to 1985.

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church located in the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. The archdiocese's cathedra is in Los Angeles, the archdiocese comprises the California counties of Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and Ventura. The cathedral is the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles, and its present archbishop is José Horacio Gómez Velasco. With over five million professing members and weekly liturgies celebrated in 32 languages, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles is numerically the single largest and most ethnically diverse archdiocese in the United States.