American ecclesiastic, a Roman Catholic Cardinal. He was ordained a priest 5/01/1962; Bishop 1975-80 in Fresno; Archbishop of Los Angeles 1985-91 and Cardinal, 6/28/1991.
Mahony was the second-born of twin boys, the sons of a poultry business owner and a housewife. After being ordained a Roman Catholic priest, he rose through the hierarchy to the role of Cardinal. He served in California posts and had many board positions, appointments and honors. In 1967 he was Chaplain to Pope Paul VI.
Similar to Cardinal Bernardin, he is fiercely conservative in defending his mother church yet unflinchingly liberal on his social agendas. Direct and fearless, Mahony is head of the nation’s largest archdiocese, with 3.5 million Catholics. He has crusaded on behalf of immigrants and the downtrodden, and has taken on the film industry, Governor Pete Wilson and President Clinton. He celebrated the Mass at the 4th annual convention of Catholic Lesbian and Gay Ministries. Mahony has emerged through the years as one of the most powerful religious and secular leaders in California and beyond. His skills have cast him as one who balances spiritual principles with the demands of real-world problems.
In the deeply troubled days for the church that began in January 2002, in which hundreds of priests have been accused of sexual misconduct, even a man of Mahony’s stature was not exempt: a woman came forward on 3/20/2002 to accuse him of molestation in a Catholic high school. Flora Mae Hickman, a pretty black teen-ager in 1970 is now a 51-year old woman taking medication for paranoid schizophrenia. Mahony began a cooperative investigation with local authorities in order to clear his name.
Link to Wikipedia biography