I was dabbling in DhammaWheel forum, when an interesting situation pops up.
The discussion was talking about Japanese priests who thinks that they are monks who marries. I commented that they are laity as far as the 4 fold assembly is concerned. And due to the second generation onwards, since first generation of those monks parajika and are not considered monks, the second generation didn’t get proper ordination, they are still regarded as laity. So since they are laity, they didn’t commit parajika by marrying. They could still ordain as a monk.
However, on the issue of theft of status, there’s a good question. Here’s from BMC 2:
“The Commentary to Pc 65 recommends that when a bhikkhu who assumes that he is properly ordained but later discovers that his ordination was invalid, he should reordain as quickly as possible. This shows that such a bhikkhu is also not guilty of theft of status or of affiliation.”
Excerpt From: Thanissaro Bhikkhu. “The Buddhist Monastic Code, Volumes I & II”. Apple Books.
Does this applies to Japanese monks? So that as soon as they learnt the Vinaya, knew that they are not properly ordained, they can quickly seek proper ordination and be celibate, or are they already guilty of theft of status, regardless of them learning the vinaya properly or not?