In a joint statement issued today, the Archbishop of Westminster the Most Rev Vincent Nichols and the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams said the Apostolic Constitution was a response to requests over the years from Anglican groups wanting to enter into full visible communion with the Roman Catholic Church.
The structure makes it possible for former Anglicans to join "personal ordinariates" and enter into full communion with the Catholic Church while "preserving elements of distinctive Anglican spiritual patrimony".
The leaders said the Apostolic Constitution recognised the "substantial overlap in faith, doctrine and spirituality between the Catholic Church and the Anglican tradition".
"The announcement of this Apostolic Constitution brings to an end a period of uncertainty for such groups who have nurtured hopes of new ways of embracing unity with the Catholic Church. It will now be up to those who have made requests to the Holy See to respond to the Apostolic Constitution," they said.
Despite differences in the Anglican Communion about the consecration of women and homosexuals as bishops, Dr Williams dismissed the idea that the constitution reflected problems among Anglicans.
"I do not think this constitution will be seen as in any sense a commentary on Anglican problems offered by the Vatican. It is a response to this range of requests and inquiries from a very broad variety of people, either Anglican or of Anglican heritage.
"In that sense it has no negative impact on the relations of the Communion as a whole to the Roman Catholic Church as a whole."