Title III: Of the Computation of Time

With liturgical laws saved, time, unless something else is expressly provided, is to be computed according to the norm of the canons which follow.

§ 1. A day consists of 24 hours to be computed continuously from midnight; a week of 7 days.

§ 2. In law, under the name of a month comes a span of 30 days, and under the name of a year a span of 365 days, unless the month and year are said to be taken as they are in the calendar.

§ 1. In computing the hours of the day one must stand by the common usage of the place; but in the private celebration of Mass, in the private recitation of the canonical hours, in receiving Holy Communion, and in observing the law of fast or abstinence, even if another computation is usual in the place, one may follow the time of the place, whether local true or mean time, or legal time, whether regional or another extraordinary time.

§ 2. As regards the time for enforcing obligations of contracts, the prescription of civil law in force in the territory is to be observed, unless it has been otherwise agreed by express pact.

§ 1. If a month and a year are designated by their proper name or equivalently, for example, in the month of February, in the next future year, they are to be taken as they are in the calendar.

§ 2. If the starting point is assigned neither explicitly nor implicitly, for example, suspension from the celebration of Mass for a month or for two years, three months of vacations in a year, etc., the time is computed from moment to moment; and if the time is continuous, as in the first example given, months and years are taken as they are in the calendar; if interrupted, a week is understood as 7 days, a month as 30, a year as 365.

§ 3. If the time consists of one or more months or years, one or more weeks, or finally several days, and the starting point is assigned explicitly or implicitly:

1° Months and years are to be taken as they are in the calendar.

2° If the starting point coincides with the beginning of a day, for example, two vacation months from the fifteenth day of August, the first day is counted toward completing the numbering and the time is ended at the beginning of the last day of the same number.

3° If the starting point does not coincide with the beginning of a day, for example, the fourteenth year of age, the year of novitiate, an eight-day period from the vacancy of an episcopal see, a ten-day period for appealing, etc., the first day is not counted and the time is ended when the last day of the same number has been completed.

4° But if a month lacks a day of the same number, for example, one month from the thirtieth day of January, then according to the different case the time is ended at the beginning or at the completion of the last day of the month.

5° If there is question of acts of the same kind to be renewed at stated times, for example, a triennium for perpetual profession after temporary profession, a triennium or other period of time for renewing an election, etc., the time ends on the same recurring day on which it began, but the new act can be placed throughout that whole day.

Useful time is understood as that which is available to someone for exercising or pursuing his right in such a way that it does not run for one who is ignorant or unable to act; continuous time is that which admits no interruption.