Three former Anglican bishops will be ordained to the Catholic priesthood at Westminster Cathedral on January 15.

After being received into the Church on January 1, Andrew Burnham, the former Bishop of Ebbsfleet, John Broadhurst, the former Bishop of Fulham, and Keith Newton, the former Bishop of Richborough, will be ordained deacons on January 13 and become priests on January 15.

Their reception into the Church marked the first concrete steps made towards establishing the first ordinariate in the world. Andrew Burnham, John Broadhurst and Keith Newton will be the first former Anglican bishops taking up Pope Benedict XVI’s provision for Anglicans wishing to be in full communion with Rome to be ordained as Catholic priests. They are likely to be ordained and incardinated into the ordinariate, which would mean such a structure will have to be erected before January 13. Speculation suggests the decree of erection will be published on January 11.

In November 2009, Pope Benedict published the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus, which established a new legal structure for Anglicans who wished to keep their Anglican identity but wanted to come into communion with Rome. The structure, known as a personal ordinariate, most resembles a
military diocese.