Deirdre McQuade was a well-known pro-lifer who at one time was spokesperson for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Pro-Life Activities office. But she was also known for her love of words, her musical and photographic talents, and her warm hospitality and personalism.
On April 21, 2022, at the age of 53, she passed away following a four-year battle with cancer. Since then, a number of her friends have put together a collection of essays and photographs on a subject dear to McQuade’s heart.
The result, The Eighth Station, was published September 1 (Via Crucis Press imprint, 138 pages, $19.95; eBook, $4.95). It’s available through Amazon.com, and net proceeds will benefit McQuade’s favorite charity, The Sisters of Life.
In 2009, McQuade wrote,
“Whenever I go into a church, I take a picture of the Eighth Station of the Cross: Jesus stops to greet and speak with the women. He continues to do so today.”
Over the years, she posted dozens of unique photos to social media, accompanied by her own notes on Christ’s encounter with women. As friends learned of Deirdre’s interest in the 8th station, they began to send her their own snapshots from different churches, shrines, and cathedrals.
In The Eighth Station, photos of various sculptures and paintings from churches around the nation are interspersed by reflections written by Sisters of Life and nearly 20 women who knew McQuade – noted authors, educators, columnists, consecrated religious, musicians, poets, healthcare professionals, and public servants.
They share thoughts about McQuade, and how Jesus continues to greet and speak to women today. One contributor is Zoe Romanowsky, a former Aleteia editor.
Quotes from McQuade herself, as well as several of her own photos, are found throughout the book.
Jesus knows
It's not all high-minded theology, either. One of the most poignant essays is from McQuade's own sister, Pamela Shannon, who brings the conversation down to earth. What is Jesus saying, when he tells the women of Jerusalem, "Do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and your children?"
"He acknowledges you in your grief," Shannon suggests. "Take a moment ... for what you must weep. Divorce, Death, Domestic Violence, Aching Loneliness. Discrimination. ... A marriage in the trenches. Combative co-parenting."
Jesus Christ, born into such a world, "knows what we need to weep," Shannon writes. "We do not even need to provide words for our prayer. Just sit with him."
Meant to be
Deirdre McQuade knew so much of what her sister describes, at least from working one-on-one with women in crisis pregnancies. She was active in pro-life work from at least the time when she was working on a master’s degree at the University of Notre Dame, counseling women at a local pregnancy center. She also worked as Director of Pastoral Research and Outreach in the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend.
Later on, McQuade served as National Program Director at Feminists for Life, where she oversaw the College Outreach Program, and went on to work at the Office of Research on Women’s Health at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
In a foreword, Dr. Jeanne Schindler, a Fellow of the John Paul II Institute in Washington, D.C., writes,
“It is not an exaggeration to say that scores of people across the globe — whether fellow graduate students, like me, Irish fiddle players at a session, women facing crisis pregnancies, or lonely parishioners needing a warm touch — were made more of who they were meant to be because of Deirdre’s friendship, faithfulness, honesty, courage, and simple delight in the world.”
