WASHINGTON (OSV News) — Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Bishop Dennis J. Sullivan of Camden, New Jersey, 80, and Coadjutor Bishop Joseph A. Williams immediately succeeds him as the ninth bishop of the diocese.

The announcement was publicized on March 17 in Washington by Cardinal Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States.

A native of Minnesota, Bishop Williams, 50, was named coadjutor for Camden by Pope Francis on May 21. Before that, he was an auxiliary for St. Paul and Minneapolis, appointed by the pope on December 10, 2021, and ordained a bishop on January 25, 2022.

Bishop Sullivan, a native of the Bronx, New York, was installed as Camden’s eighth bishop on February 12, 2013. When he turned 75 March 17, 2020, he submitted his resignation to the pope as required by canon law.

The six-county Camden Diocese covers nearly 2,700 square miles in South Jersey. It has a Catholic population of about 305,000 out of a total population of over 1.4 million.