In keeping with Canon 401 of the Code of Canon Law, the cardinal presented his resignation to the Pope on reaching his 75th birthday Sunday.
Coadjutor Archbishop John Atcherly Dew, 56, will succeed Cardinal Williams in the governance of the archdiocese. The Pope appointed then Auxiliary Bishop Dew as coadjutor last May.
The archdiocese has 515,000 inhabitants, 16.3% of whom are Catholic.
Cardinal Williams will continue to collaborate with Holy See organizations of which he is a member, including the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples and the Special Council for Oceania of the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops.
He will continue to be an elector in a possible conclave to choose a new pope. The College of Cardinals now has 183 members, including 117 electors under the age of 80.
