If this really happened, it was a caricature of what the Church demanded of her priests at that time. In these post-Vatican II days, on the other hand, some priests reject the notion of obligation being attached to the Office. Prayer should be voluntary to be fruitful, they maintain, not forced on them under pain of sin. Granted that people ought to do things because they want to do them or because they like to do them, but many things in life are not wanted or liked but still they have to be done. A mother awakened from sound sleep by the cries of her baby may not want to get out of her warm bed in the middle of a cold night but she does so because of her love for her baby.
Love always makes obligation bearable and even rewarding.
In our role as co-intercessors with Christ on behalf of his people, we priests have accepted the obligation to celebrate the Liturgy of the Hours daily. The Church holds us to this obligation out of love for us and for the people we serve. The Liturgy of the Hours is not private or individual prayer. The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy nn. It manifests the Church and has an effect upon it.