One year ago, 32 of the nation’s largest companies, including Twitter and Google,
claimed
that a Supreme Court case about a Catholic agency in Philadelphia’s foster care system would disrupt their businesses, scramble the world of government contracting, and stop same-sex couples from becoming foster parents. In
Fulton v. City of Philadelphia
, the Supreme Court had to rule on whether the Philadelphia government could shutter Catholic Social Services, a 200-year-old foster care ministry, if it did not agree to review and certify same-sex couples as foster parents. Philadelphia conceded that no same-sex couple had ever actually been turned away by Catholic Social Services, but believed it sent the wrong
message
for the city to even allow this ministry to exist. Sadly, the price of eliminating the Catholic Church from participating in the city’s foster care system wasn’t hypothetical. Catholic Social Services began caring for Philadelphia orphans in 1793, while the yellow fever raged. And even as Philadelphia sought to shut the doors of this foster care ministry, the city regarded Catholic Social Services as a “
point of light
” during an acknowledged nationwide foster care crisis.