States, have given rise to doubts and queries regarding the time for
fulfilling the precept of the office and also regarding the time for
lawful anticipation of Matins and Lauds. These doubts were solved
several years ago, and now there is no longer any difficulty or anxiety
over "true time," "new time," "legal time," in relation to matters
ecclesiastical. In reply to queries, Dr. M. J. O'Donnell, in the _Irish
Ecclesiastical Record_ (Vol. III., p. 582), explains clearly this time
difficulty and its solution by the Congregation of the Council on 22nd
July, 1893. The Bishop of Trier explained to the Congregation of the
Council that owing to the State legislation in the German Empire all
public clocks should register the same time, and that this meant that in
his diocese the legal computation differs by half an hour from the mean
time. "May clerics follow the legal time in reciting the Divine Office?"
was the bishop's question. The Congregation of the Council answered by a
simple affirmative. In 1892, Greenwich time was introduced for State
purposes into all railway, postal, and Government offices in Holland.
The query was put to the Congregation of the Inquisition if the clergy
and people might, for the purpose of fast and other ecclesiastical
obligations, follow the new time, or were they obliged to retain the
true time? The reply was "_affirmative ad primam: negative ad secundam
partem_." "In a word, the constant Roman answer has been 'Do as you
please'; so far as the approval of the legal time is concerned it
confirms the conclusion of the editor of the _Acta_ (xxxii-251) that in
computing time the Church follows the rule that regulates all business
concerns in different localities....

"In the meantime, taking into account the conventional character of
'time' and the liberal principles of Rome in the past, we have no doubt
that everyone, priest or layman, is fully justified in following the new
time if he feels so inclined." (See _Codex Juris. Canon._, Can. 33).