For Lindy and Brian Wynne, being foster parents was the first step in their parenthood journey.

The Wynnes, who are now the parents of three adopted children, embody the adage from Ignatian spirituality in their Tennessee home — contemplatives in action.

“What could be better than to save a child by the grace, generosity and goodness of God?” Lindy told the Register.

Lindy, the host of the Catholic podcast Mamas in Spirit, sees a direct correlation between societal breakdowns and vulnerable children.

“As the family unit weakens, more children are in foster care,” Wynne told the Register. “As people are enabled to use more drugs and alcohol and take less responsibility for their actions, more children are in foster care. As laws and police are weakened, more children are in foster care. As fatherhood and manhood are belittled, more children are in foster care.”

Over the Fourth of July weekend, a movie shed light on this dire reality. Angel Studios released its latest feature film, Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot. It is based on the true story that started in the late 1990s of Rev. W.C. Martin and his wife, Donna, who inspired members of their Bennett Chapel in rural East Texas to adopt 77 children struggling to be placed through the foster-care system. The Martins themselves adopted four children from abusive homes.

In 2021, Texas ranked second behind California with the highest number of foster-care placements — 28,042, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

According to an NPR report from earlier this year, “Texas has been in litigation over its foster care system for nearly 13 years. A federal court is now weighing whether to impose hefty fines over the system’s inability to make progress.”

The crisis in foster care is not limited to Texas alone.

The Christian Alliance for Orphans (CAFO) noted that “states like Minnesota, Illinois, Arizona and Missouri have a higher ratio of foster care placements to the state population.” For instance, Illinois and Florida, the third highest state with the most foster care placements, share a similar number of placements, but Illinois has roughly 10 million fewer inhabitants than Florida.

This reality breaks Lindy Wynne’s heart.

“When we foster, we learn about the meaning of love itself,” Wynne said. “That Christ’s love is sacrificial. By embracing, loving, providing, forming, advocating for and staunchly standing with the child no matter what, we learn a little bit more about Jesus’ passion and a whole lot more about the intense, eternal, unconditional love of God.”

This Christ-focused care has been the hallmark of foster care via Catholic charities.

“Many dioceses delegate foster care and/or adoption to their local Catholic Charities agency,” Julia Dezelski, associate director of marriage and family life for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, told the Register. “However, in the wake of legislation in a few states requiring agencies to place children with same-sex couples, there have been fewer Catholic Charities agencies continuing this important work of foster-care placement.” This is part due to being compelled to comply with same-sex-marriage laws and other criteria opposed to Catholic teaching.

On bright spot: Three years ago, the Supreme Court unanimously decided in Fulton v. City of Philadelphia that the city’s denial of a new contract to Catholic Social Services (CSS) over the agency’s refusal to certify same-sex couples as foster parents was an unconstitutional violation of the Free Exercise Clause.

The USCCB advocates foster care primarily through “a national network of 12 state licensed Unaccompanied Refugee Minor (URM) foster care programs.” Most of these programs, according to the USCCB, are run by Catholic Charities agencies.

“Many dioceses have not established alternative forms of support for fostering or adoption nor has care for ‘orphans and widows’ (James 1:27) in our modern context received prioritization in our post-Dobbs society,” Dezelski acknowledged.

In this post-Roe v. Wade landscape, the plight of children across the nation takes on newfound complexities. But as Sound of Hope demonstrates, Protestant communities are generally quicker to embrace fostering than Catholics. The real-life Rev. Martin told ABC News in 2008, “As much as God has given us, and as much as we have, there are so many wealthy churches. What are they doing to become part of the solution?”

Martin gave the keynote at the Archdiocese of Los Angeles’ annual OneLife LA pro-life event in 2018. Two years earlier, speaker Nick Vujicic challenged the crowd at the same event: “If you’re truly pro-life, what are you doing for the tens of thousands of children languishing in the child-welfare system in California?”

It was a question that hit close to home: Los Angeles County has more children in foster care than any other state, according to Kathleen Domingo, former director of the Los Angeles Archdiocese Office of Life, Justice and Peace and current executive director of the California Catholic Conference. In 2023, the L.A. Archdiocese announced FosterAll, which recruits prospective foster families from faith communities, was the recipient of its OneLife LA service grant of $10,000.

Analyzing Catholic foster-care efforts in California, Texas, Florida, Arizona, Illinois, Minnesota and Missouri yields uneven, if not haphazard, results. One might be quick to point to the issue of foster parenting through Catholic agencies as a political problem, but each state — each diocese — has its own reasons. Back in 2007, Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of Chicago shut down its foster-care program “after a $12-million lawsuit payout prompted the agency’s insurer to drop its coverage,” the Chicago Tribune reported at the time.

The result has been a general lack of knowledge about the foster-care system in Catholic communities, and, in turn, perhaps a certain detachment about fostering. “Caring for orphans in today’s society is a pro-life issue that needs to be more strongly prioritized,” Dezelski said.

Dezelski cited the Archdiocese of Kansas City’s establishment of a foster-care ministry that “encourages and supports fostering children through awareness raising and advocacy.”

Springs of Love is another Church-connected ministry that “showcases the stories of families who have opened their doors to the most vulnerable and offers actionable steps that parishes can take to care for foster families,” Dezelski said.

Lindy and Brian Wynne intentionally turned their minds and hearts to how God was calling them to help care for the most poor and vulnerable. “To love is to die to self and suffer for the sake of another,” Lindy said. “Mother Teresa and so many others are saints because they have their lives away. They suffered for the sake of another. They took the crucifix to heart in the most personal of ways,” she said.

“Fostering and adopting children requires this,” she added. But it is not without hardship. Still, Lindy sees Jesus in that suffering. “At the end of the day, the only thing ‘pretty’ about following God is the grace of his love.”

“The more the Holy Family is reflected and God’s Law honored, the fewer children in foster care,” Wynne said. “The more we follow Jesus and are in his word, the fewer children in foster care. The more we follow Jesus’ example, the fewer children in foster care. The more we go to church, the fewer the children in foster care. The more priests preach about helping children in foster care, the fewer the children in foster care.”

“Given the plight of children in the foster-care system today across our nation, it is incumbent upon Catholics to ask ourselves how we are answering the cry of God’s vulnerable children,” Dezelski said. “The Church can and must foster a culture of love and mercy towards these children.”