It may be more a matter of hierarchy or status within the community than a matter of the heart. The transformation associated with the rite of passage does not take place just because you go through the ritual. There needs to be the search that brings you to the point of inquiry, and there needs to be a raising of the bodhi mind. That raising of consciousness needs to have taken place, otherwise a new way of seeing, hearing, feeling and realizing doesn't happen. As a result, the precepts begin to be actualized as our own life.
Real atonement takes place only when the bodhi mind has been raised and practice is engaged.
When that has happened, we're dealing with a very powerful spiritual magnet that attracts everything into the sphere of practice. Raising the bodhi mind, practice and enlightenment thus become one reality. All evil karma ever committed by me since of old. Every cause has an effect, and every effect is the next cause. Cause does not precede effect, and effect does not follow cause.