Three former Anglican bishops were received into the Catholic Church just hours after they officially gave up their ministries in the Church of England.

Bishops Andrew Burnham, John Broadhurst and Keith Newton will be soon ordained as priests for a special Anglican ordinariate that will be set up later in January.

Their resignations took effect at midnight Dec. 31, and they were received into the Catholic Church Jan. 1 at London’s Westminster Cathedral.

They will be ordained as Catholic deacons Jan. 13, then as priests Jan. 15.

They will be incardinated into the English ordinariate, which will be the first to be created since the pope issued an apostolic constitution in November 2009, to allow the group reception of disaffected Anglo-Catholics into the Catholic Church.