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Soldier, surgeon, Sister

Stacy Rausch | Catholic Herald

Sr. Dede Byrne shows where she cares for the poor in a patient exam room at the Catholic Charities Medical Clinic in Washington.

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Sister Deirdre “Dede” Mary Byrne has spent her life serving
others while wearing multiple uniforms. Whether it was
military fatigues while a Colonel in the U.S. Army Medical
Corps; scrubs in an operating room or on a missionary trip as
a general surgeon; or the traditional black habit of the
Little Workers of the Sacred Hearts, Sister Dede fulfills
each role with skill and compassion.

Sister Dede grew up in McLean with her parents William, a
thoracic surgeon, and Mary, a stay-at-home-mom who raised
eight children. Despite hectic schedules and demanding
careers, her parents attended daily Mass at St. Luke Church,
and instilled in her the meaning of being a devout and
faithful Catholic.

Sister Dede said “the garden of vocations is family,” and she
considers parents to be the best catechists. She credits the
support of her parents with her and her sibling’s vocation
choices. Her brother, Father William Byrne, is pastor of Our
Lady of Mercy Church in Potomac, Md., five of her siblings
are married and have families, and one sister is single, but
helps take care of their mother and other family members.
Sister Dede said she always felt a call to the religious life
and that her mother often told her “she had a vocation in
utero.” The call to religious life, however, came after she
pursued her other passion – medicine.

Sister Dede joined the Army in 1978 as a medical student
looking for a way to help pay her tuition at Georgetown
University in Washington. The military offered a scholarship
program, so she signed up to serve her country and ultimately
would devote 29 years to the military as a doctor and
surgeon. She finished medical school in 1982 and practiced
family medicine until 1985. She served as a full-time
military officer from 1982 to1989, and as an Army reservist,
she did a year of missionary work from 1989 to 1990. From
1990 to 1997, she did research and completed a second
residency in general surgery in 1997.

During that time, she met three people who would have a huge
impact on determining what direction her life would take.

Sister Dede spent time with Blessed Teresa of Kolkata during
a visit she made to Washington in 1997. The Missionaries of
Charity in Washington blessed Sister Dede with the “gift” of
welcoming Blessed Teresa to the city and riding with her to
their house, The Gift of Peace. Sister Dede was on hand if
medical care was needed.

Sister Dede met former Washington Cardinal James A. Hickey
when he required open-heart surgery in 1996. Sister Dede was
the first assistant during the surgery and spent almost every
day with him during his recovery. She turned to him later as
a friend for guidance on her calling.

Sister Dede said that “she came very close to giving up the
medical profession” to pursue the religious life, but a
conversation with Jesuit Father John A. Hardon changed her
mind. He told her that if she didn’t find a community that
would allow her to keep practicing medicine, he thought that
God would feel she was throwing away a gift. Once again, the
call to religious life was put on hold.

From 1997 to 1999, Sister Dede practiced medicine in Ventura,
Calif., striving to “achieve the best training possible to be
able to give to the poor.”

In 2000, Cardinal Hickey asked her to come to Washington to
serve the poor and focus on her discernment. She was
introduced to the Little Workers of the Sacred Hearts during
this time, and she fell in love with the order, which was
roughly 80 percent school teachers and 20 percent medical
workers. She finally had found her perfect fit and started
formation in 2002, professing her first vows in 2004.

The transition to being a full-time sister was not an easy
one.

In 2003, the military once again needed her, and as a
reservist she was deployed three times and had to take off
the habit. She said she basically “lived in scrubs” during
that time.

In 2003, she served at Walter Reed National Military Medical
Center in Washington. In 2005, she was stationed at Ft.
Carson in Colorado, and in 2008, she was deployed to
Afghanistan. She described that time as having “one foot in
the military door and one foot with the Sisters.”

When she returned from Afghanistan, the order asked if she
could retire from the military, and she did in 2009. She
professed final vows with the Little Workers in 2011.

Sister Dede now spends her days as clinical director of the
Catholic Charities Medical Clinic in Washington, where she
cares for refugees, the poor and the uninsured. If her
patients require surgery, she operates at nearby Sibley
Memorial Hospital.

Sister Dede’s medical background influenced the start of a
clinic run by the Little Sisters at their mission house in
Washington. Staffed by volunteers and the five sisters who
live at the convent, the mission offers a physical therapy
clinic twice a week and an eye clinic for diabetics once a
month. The clinic is an official rotation site for Georgetown
University medical students and George Washington
University’s physical therapy department.

The Little Workers are an Italian pontifical institute
founded in 1894. They have five mission sites in the United
States, including the Washington mission started in 1954, one
of the oldest.

Sister Dede said she admires the order for making very minor
changes after Vatican II and “loves that the sisters …
are so humble and little and maintain their faithful vows of
poverty, chastity, obedience and prayerful life,” she said.
“The storm of Vatican II blew over their heads, and all they
felt was a little breeze.”

When asked how she lives her “dual life” of sister and
doctor, she responded that it really isn’t a dual life for
her. She quoted Blessed Teresa that she is “a sister first.”
Her vocation is a “healing ministry and God is the healer,
and I just try to stay out of His way.”

Sister Dede’s training as a general surgeon, as well as a
family practitioner, gives her a unique opportunity to be
able to help those in need. This training especially comes in
handy as a missionary overseas.

“The specialties that I might not do here on a regular basis,
like orthopaedics or obstetrics/gynecology, I can do there,”
said Sister Dede. Also, during an emergency there may not be
time to call in another doctor. She said it is the “dramatic
cases that have told her God was the one really in charge.”

With a calming presence, and “Sr. Dr. Dede” embroidered on
the apron she wears over her habit, she said patients see her
in the clinic and have a sense of security seeing her in the
habit.

“It reminds them of their place on earth and that God is in
control,” she said.

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