A Martyr's Crown
Joyce Coronel is a longtime columnist and reporter for The Catholic Sun Newspaper in Phoenix. The mother of five sons, she graduated summa cum laude  from Arizona State University with a degree in political science and Latin American Studies. Fluent in Spanish, Coronel has had a lifelong interest in international affairs. In 2010 while reporting on a deadly attack on a Catholic church in Iraq, she came to know the Chaldean Catholic community in Arizona. Since then, she's penned a series of articles and columns detailing the vibrant faith and heartbreaking struggles of the Chaldeans. In 2011 she became a catechist at Holy Cross Chaldean Catholic Mission, learning the prayers and chants in Aramaic so as to be able to teach her students. "I'm a Roman Catholic," Coronel says, "but my heart beats half Chaldean."