ArchSPM/Bishop Joseph Andrew Williams
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Pope Francis today appointed Saint Paul and Minneapolis Auxiliary Bishop, the Most Reverend Joseph A. Williams as Coadjutor Bishop of the Diocese of Camden.
The appointment confers the right for Bishop Williams to succeed Bishop Dennis J. Sullivan, the current bishop of the Camden Diocese.
As required by Connon Law, Bishop Sullivan tendered his resignation to the Holy Father by his 75th birthday in 2020. He will officially retire on his 80th birthday, March 17, 2025.
The Diocese of Camden is comprised of 2,691 square miles in the State of New Jersey and has a total population of 1,365,458, of which 311,489, are Catholic.
The appointment was publicized by Cardinal Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States.
According to the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis website, Bishop Williams was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis in 2002 and his episcopal ordination took place Jan. 25, 2022.
Before his role as auxiliary bishop and his current assignment as moderator and priest-in-solidum of the Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Saint Paul, he served as pastor of Saint Stephen in Minneapolis (2008-2022) and parochial administrator of Holy Rosary in Minneapolis (2020-2022), ministered as a parochial vicar of the Cathedral of Saint Paul in St. Paul (2002-2004) and Divine Mercy in Faribault (2004-2005), and was pastor of Saint Mathias in Hampton and Saint Mary in New Trier (2005-2008). He has also served as coordinator of the Archdiocesan Outreach to Persons with Disabilities (2003-2005).
He was appointed Vicar for Latino Ministry in 2018, is a member of the board of trustees for The St. Paul Seminary and St. John Vianney College Seminary, and has served as chaplain of the Minnesota House of Representatives.
Born May 2, 1974, to Dr. Gary and Mary Williams, Bishop Williams is the third of nine children. He grew up in Stillwater, Minnesota, where he attended Saint Croix Catholic School and Stillwater High School. His brother, Father Peter Williams, ordained in 2004, is a priest of the archdiocese, and is Pastor of Saint Ambrose in Woodbury.
Bishop Williams holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Minnesota Morris, graduating summa cum laude in 1996. He studied philosophy and pre-theology at Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio, from 1996-1998 and attended The St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity in St. Paul from 1998-2002, where he earned a Master of Divinity degree. He was ordained a priest at age 28.
Bishop Williams is known for his longtime ministry to Latino and Spanish-speaking Catholics in the Archdiocese, beginning in Faribault, where he and other parish leaders worked to bring healing to a Latino community that had been affected by drug raids. Members of both of his most recent parishes are predominantly Latino, and he has worked to change negative cultural perceptions of undocumented immigrants and he has led neighborhood-based evangelization efforts, which include knocking on doors and inviting people to Mass and faith formation.
