
Sophia Institute Press
CV NEWS FEED // Dubbed the “modern-day Joan of Arc,” Sister Deirdre “Dede” Byrne served as an Army surgeon in Afghanistan and Sudan after taking her vows and has become one of the biggest voices in the pro-life movement.
In an engaging and inspirational biography endorsed by prominent Catholics and former President Donald Trump, Leisa Marie Carzon, Ph.D., celebrates the life of Sister Dede, who embraced her unique vocation as a medical surgeon and a religious sister of the Little Workers of the Sacred Hearts.
The author is herself a Catholic pro-life leader and activist, lending expertise and insight to the biography. Carzon is the president of Plymouth Right to Life, and president and chairman of the board of a Catholic health care clinic. She is also an assistant professor of education and the director of Catholic School Leadership Graduate Program at Madonna University and a national executive with Right for America.
This well-researched biography outlines Sister Dede’s work as an Army surgeon in Israel, Korea, Haiti, Sudan, and Afghanistan. It also discusses the obstacles she faced in embracing her vocation and the resistance from many, including other Catholics, when she has spoken unapologetically for life.
By exploring these difficulties, the biography exposes some of the tensions in modern American Catholicism, whether it’s Catholics who are anti-military or those who think that religion should never be involved in politics.
Growing up in a strong Catholic household
Sister Dede is the fifth of eight children in an Irish-American Catholic family. Her father, a surgeon, and her mother, a stay-at-home mom, were both daily Mass attendees, and prayed that some of their children would embrace a religious vocation. Sister Dede’s youngest brother, Billy, went on to become Bishop William Byrne of the Diocese of Springfield, Massachusetts.
Carzon describes Sister Dede as a competitive, athletic tomboy in her younger years. However, she always embraced her feminine side in the way she cared for those around her, especially those who seemed poor, lonely, or abandoned.
Inspired by her father’s work for the sick, Sister Dede went to medical school and joined the Army to obtain a scholarship covering the costs of her education at Georgetown Medical School. She served as an Army surgeon in Jerusalem and Korea. Carzon relates this period of Sister Dede’s life with well-paced narratives, Sister Dede’s first-hand accounts of her experiences, and anecdotes of Sister Dede’s profound effect on those around her.
Overcoming obstacles to her religious vocation
Carzon related an incident in Sister Dede’s discernment process that indicates the nun’s humility and submission to God’s will. Thinking that she had a vocation to the Missionaries of Charity, which does not include surgeons in its ministry, she considered giving up medicine altogether in order to pursue her vocation. She told her spiritual director, “I know it’s a gift from God, so I will simply give it back to Him.” However, he told her that that was not her path.
She found her vocation with the Little Workers of the Sacred Hearts, which is dedicated to teaching and nursing. Although the order embraced her, she faced resistance from others. One religious sister who was not part of the order wrote a letter to the Vatican to try to prevent Dede from taking her final vows, because she found out that Dede worked in Army hospitals.
“Some religious sisters, especially those who might be anti-military, think we are all warmongers. At least, I think that’s probably how she saw me,” Sister Dede said. “But I explain to people all the time that I’m on the healing end of the wars. I’m a physician on the other side of the battles, taking care of our brave soldiers who have done so much.”
As a result of the letter, Sister Dede had to start her formation over from the beginning, and her final vows were delayed by several years. However, Carzon emphasizes that Sister Dede faced this challenge with cheerful resignation. When she took her final vows, she added a fourth vow of providing free, loving medical care for the poor.
Becoming a champion for human life
After spending several chapters on Sister Dede’s life-saving work in Afghanistan and Sudan, including harrowing accounts of the danger Sister Dede faced, and heart-warming stories of the lives she saved, Carzon writes about Sister Dede’s pro-life activism in the United States.
As a religious sister, Sister Dede was very discouraged by the public examples of Catholics who lived contrary to Church teaching, especially current President Joe Biden. She was distressed that Fr. James Martin and Sister Simone Campbell appeared at the 2020 Democratic National Convention, worried that Catholics would not understand the moral issues with the party’s platform, especially the issue of abortion.
The next day, she went to Eucharistic Adoration and told Our Lord in prayer, “Lord, use me in whatever way You deem fit for advancing the pro-life message. Let me be Your voice to do more. I’m Your gal, Lord — whatever You will!”
About two hours later, she received a phone call requesting that she speak at the Republican National Convention. With her Mother Superior’s permission, she accepted, and gave a speech upholding the dignity of life and decrying the sin of abortion.
However, she received a lot of pushback for her speech. Countless people called her convent, including one woman who yelled, “How dare Sister Dede speak at the Republican National Convention. Nuns have no business being in politics!”
Sister Dede’s friend Dorinda Sears, a wife and mother who was visiting the convent, was on the other end of the line. She responded to the irate woman, “Well, ma’am, she would have also happily spoken at the Democratic National Convention if they would have called to ask her. But they didn’t.”
Sears added, “And by the way, if they had invited her, she would have delivered the same message — that killing an unborn baby is not what God wants.”
Other Catholics opposed her description of the Rosary as a “weapon,” which is a common way of describing the powerful intercession of Our Lady against evil.
Now, Sister Dede provides health care to the needy in Washington, D.C. Carzon wrote a section of the biography as “a day in the life of Sister Dede,” and included much about Sister Dede’s pro-life work. The author witnessed Sister Dede save three unborn babies’ lives, and related these in a well-paced, journalistic style. One of the women who came in for an abortion pill reversal had talked to Sister Dede outside of an abortion clinic a few days prior.
Book earns high-profile endorsements
Sister, Soldier, Surgeon is an inspirational story of an ordinary girl who became an extraordinary woman by embracing God’s plan for her life and using her gifts for His glory. Like the trailblazing saints who inspire her, Sister Dede’s life is fueled by the love of God, and witnessing that love to others.
The author writes near the end of the biography, “What makes Sister Dede Byrne a heroine — what makes so many find her inspiring and what makes her example so important today — is the way she loves …”
Trump joined a number of other public figures including Michael Knowles of the Daily Wire, Raymond Arroyo of EWTN, and numerous bishops in endorsing the book and calling Sister Dede an American hero.
“She is a beautiful personification of the many patriots who draw upon their faith to build and sustain this great country,” the former president wrote. “I hope her powerful story, as told by Dr. Carzon, will inspire a new generation of Catholics and Americans to a life of service.”
