How will Pope Francis's comments about homosexuality and women impact the Catholic Church? Then, what is the best way to create a bilingual household, and are long distance relationships more meaningful? Then, for $155 a night, misdemeanor convicts can get a jail upgrade. What do you think about non-violent criminals paying to stay in a nicer jail? Next, we discuss the "Pink Panther" jewelry heist in Europe, and author Bella DePaulo fights for the rights of singles in the workplace. Are there stigmas towards being single? All that and more, today on AirTalk.
The Pope Francis Program aims to revitalize the Catholic Church
On a flight back to Rome today, Pope Francis said he wouldn't judge priests for their sexual orientation. "If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will,” he said, “Who am I to judge?" Pope Benedict, his predecessor, signed a document in 2005 that said men with deep-rooted homosexual tendencies should not be priests.
Francis was much more conciliatory, saying gay clergymen should be forgiven and their sins forgotten. The Pope was heading home after a week-long pilgrimage to Brazil, the world’s largest Catholic country. He was welcomed by enormous crowds, including an estimated 3-million who gathered on the Copacabana beach for a prayer vigil Saturday night, culminating in Sunday’s final Mass.
Despite a dramatic drop in the number of Brazilians who identify as Catholics, the pope’s focus on poverty, political activism and social justice, seemed to go over well with the cheering crowds. But is his message enough to rebuild a church that has suffered such a dramatic decline in Latin America and beyond?
Will the Catholic Church be more welcoming to women and gays? Can the pope’s populist help him reform the troubled Vatican? Or might he face a backlash from conservatives?
Guest:
Cecilia Gonzalez-Andrieu, Associate Professor of Theological Studies, Department of Theological Studies, Loyola Marymount University
How to create a truly bilingual household
Studies have long touted the benefits of bilingualism. It has been proven to make you smarter, more creative, and even more socially adept. And in our increasingly globalized world, speaking more than one language also provides a big leg-up in finding a job.
Making sure that their kids grow up bilingual and bicultural is a concern of many first-generation immigrant parents. Linguistic experts say three methods work best when it comes to raising a bilingual kid: 1) one parent is designated as the English speaker, while the other parent only speaks another language. 2) speaking a language other than English at home exclusively. 3) parents designate a specific time and place where a language other than English is spoken. There are other ways, of course. Rupert Murdoch and wife Wendi Deng (who's going through a divorce now), for example, hired a Mandarin-speaking nanny for their two daughters.
What do you do to make sure your child grow up bilingual? What are the challenges? The issue is also playing out on a city ordinance level. In Monterey Park, where Asian Americans make up a large part of the population, lawmakers recently gave preliminary approval to a measure that would require businesses there to put up bilingual signs. It's something the the City Council of Monterey Park tried and failed to do almost 20 years ago. Should Monterey Park businesses be banned from putting up monolingual signs?
For a look at the science, options and dilemma of bilingual learning, visit KPCC.org/language. You'll find a series of web and audio stories, profiles and a map of bilingual schools in southern California.
Guests:
Barbara Pearson, Co-director of the Language Acquisition Research Center at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. And author of the book, “Raising a Bilingual Child) (Living Language, 2008)
Roxana Soto, co-author of “Bilingual Is Better: Two Latina Moms on How the Bilingual Parenting Revolution is Changing the Face of America” (Bilingual Readers, 2012)
Do long distance relationships work?
An estimated three million married couples in the U.S. live far away from each other, even though they rather live together. But a recent study published in the Journal of Communications, found that the separation actually doesn’t have a negative impact on their relationship. In fact, the study found that long distance relationships are deeper and more intimate than relationships where the couple is geographically close. The researchers, L. Crystal Jiang of City University of Hong Kong and Jeffrey T. Hancock of Cornell University found that even though long distance couples interacted less, each interaction was more meaningful. The couples apart revealed more about themselves, and essentially tried harder to maintain the relationship.
Do you think long distance relationships work? Are they actually more meaningful? Does technology like video chat and texting make it easier? Are people in geographically close relationships more apt to take it for granted?
Guest:
Tina Tessina, licensed psychotherapist, author of 13 books including: “The Commuter Marriage”
For $155 a night: a comfier jail cell
Have you ever stayed in a hotel that seemed more like a jail? Well, revenue-hungry Fremont, California is introducing a jail that’s a little bit like a hotel. ‘Pay-To-Stay’ is a new program that is offered to misdemeanor convicts who wish to avoid the rougher and more crowded county jails in Oakland and Dublin, and a night’s stay will cost you $155 a day.
It's still a jail where inmates are provided a cot, a blanket, and three meals a day. And these rates are not available to anyone with gang affiliations or a history of violent crimes; there is an application and a screening process. The Fremont facility was built in 2002 for $10.6 million, and city officials argue that the program will help the jail pay for itself.
But the ACLU has other concerns. They argue that there should not be one form of punishment for those who can afford to pay and a different form of punishment for those who cannot.
What do you think of letting non-violent criminals pay to stay separate from the general population in county jail? Is this a program that you would like to take advantage of if convicted?
Guest:
Scott Kernan, Former Undersecretary of Operations, California Corrections Department
Jewelry heist coincides with 'Pink Panther' jailbreak
A masked man broke into a diamond show in Cannes yesterday and snatched $136 million in jewels. Prosecutors in the French Riviera town said he snuck into the Carlton Intercontinental Hotel through French doors brandishing a handgun. He held up participants, including three private security guards and a handful of personnel. It all happened in the space of about a minute and the man fled on foot. Meanwhile in Zurich, Swiss authorities are on the hunt for a jewel thief who broke out of prison last Thursday night. In a dramatic scene at the Orbe penitentiary, a van rammed the entrance of prison and gunman opened fire with weapons. During the melee, 34-year-old Milan Poparic, escaped. Poparic is a member of the so-called Pink Panthers gang of jewelry thieves. He was serving a seven-year sentence for robbing a jewelry store in 2008.
It’s the second prison break of a Pink Panther member in last three months. Is it all connected? How did the lone thief make off with the jewels so readily? How easy or difficult is it to unload stolen gemstones?
Guest:
Jonathan Sazonoff, U.S. Editor, Museum Security Network and an expert on high-value crime
Ridding the stigma of being single
Author and social psychologist Bella DePaulo boldly and happily declares that she is single. As a woman in her late 50s, she says that being single is not just her marital status but that she is “single at heart” and being married would be “a step down.”
As more Americans are marrying later or choosing to not get married, DePaulo advocates for the rights of single people in the workforce. She believes that federal benefits and protections should not be given only to married couples. And in the workplace, it’s not fair that co-workers with children get more attention.
In her new book, “Singlism: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How to Stop it,” DePaulo believes that single co-workers should not have to cover for their married colleagues because a single’s life is just as important and meaningful as someone with a family. As women no longer need to be married to sustain a living, DePaulo believes societal views towards single women need to change. “Singlism” advocates that single women should be able to have sex without stigma or shame and not be pressured to be married or be mothers.
Are you single? What’s your experience? Do you feel that married people have more privileges in the workplace? Are societal views towards single people changing? Or are there certain stigmas towards singles? Are women still under the pressure of getting married? Have you deliberately decided to not get married?
Guest:
Bella DePaulo, Ph.D., psychology professor at UC Santa Barbara, author of “Singlism: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How to Stop it” and “SINGLED OUT: How Singles Are Stereotyped, Stigmatized, and Ignored, and Still Live Happily Ever After” (St. Martin’s Griffin, 2007); she coined the term “singlism.”