“WILL YOU DENY ME? Will you deny my Mother?” That was the simple life-altering question a voice posed to Kevin Matthews on a November day as he stood alone outside a Midwest flower shop looking down at a broken concrete statue of the Virgin Mary.
There, next to a dumpster, amid the mud, clutter and detritus, lay the statue, broken in two. It was the serene visage of the Holy Mother. The statue would be instantly recognizable to any Catholic, even a self described “zombie Catholic” as Matthews called himself at the time. Matthews, who was suffering from a rare form of multiple sclerosis, had just been fired from a career in which he had once been one of the country’s most recognized radio personalities. He was at rock bottom facing a decision about what to do with a battered concrete statue destined for a landfill.
That’s how it began, his long journey to redemption, healing and faith.
KEVIN MATTHEWS AND OUR LADY OF THE BROKEN VISITED SAN ANTONIO DE PADUA CATHOLIC PARISH IN ANAHEIM HILLS ON OCT. 17. PHOTO BY IAN TRAN/ DIOCESE OF ORANGE
A winding path from a trash heap to a procession on the streets of Chicago, to the Vatican, to cathedrals and chapels, hospitals and hospices, and now the Diocese of Orange. And as he travels, Matthews shares a simple message that resonates in our fractured world — we are all broken, but we’re loved by God.
BLESSED BY THE POPE
This message resonated enough with Pope Leo XIV that in February when the pontiff met Matthews, statue in tow, he not only blessed them but officially recognized the statue then known as Broken Mary as Our Lady of the Broken. She still bears the blemishes from her original meeting with Matthews. Although a craftsman reattached the top and bottom halves of the 3-foot sculpture and offered a thorough restoration,
Matthews insisted her broken hands be left alone as a reminder of their shared frailty. Also remaining are cracks and chips along her shawl and robe and faded paint that tell of her rough condition
when found.
On a recent weekend, Matthews and Our Lady of the Broken were in Southern California, where they visited Holy Innocents Catholic School in Long Beach, where earlier this year the school’s historic 1958 Virgin Mary statue had been smashed and toppled by vandals. Matthews and Our Lady also toured Christ Cathedral, where they encountered diocesan relics and visited the Shroud of Turin Museum. The weekend concluded Saturday night with an appearance of San Antonio de Padua Catholic Church in Anaheim Hills.
It may seem a peculiar coincidence that Matthews would meet the same students who were at the Vatican praying for the restoration of their statue on the same day the pope blessed Our Lady of the Broken. While the Long Beach statue is nearing completion of its restoration, Matthews and Our Lady of the Broken offered inspiration and showed that healing and redemption are possible.
“There are no coincidences,” said Matthews, whose life has been so full of converging stories during his travels as Mary’s roadie, that he no longer “overthinks it.”
“God has it all planned,” he said.
THE CRASH
To understand how far afield Matthews went to find Mary, you have to go back to Chicago in the 1980s. In the town of MJ and the Bulls, Mike Ditka and “Da Bears” and Oprah, Kevin Matthews loomed equally large. In a time when Howard Stern and Rick Dees were kings of East and West Coast radio, respectively, while in the Midwest there was Kevin Matthews, broadcasting to 10 million listeners on The Loop radio. He was an antic cross between Stern, without the raunch, and Dees without the Hollywood polish, but with better music. He was as Chicago as Harry Carey.
Ask any Chicagoan of a certain age about Jim Shorts, one of Matthews’ iconic characters, or the “Kev-heads” and you will get a hearty laugh. For 20 years, Matthews rode the tumultuous waves of the radio business and skirmished with the Federal Communications Commission. Then, in 2008, he was diagnosed with MS after suffering symptoms on his show. He was eventually fired in 2011. After his discovery of the Broken Mary, it took a few years before several priests finally talked Matthews into sharing his experiences and embracing his faith. He has since written two books, been featured with Mary in an award-winning and Emmy-nominated 2025 documentary film Broken Mary: The Kevin Matthews Story, and travels regularly to speaking engagements. His website, brokenmary.com, is a one-stop shop for merchandise, bookings and free prayers and rosary readings.
PARISHIONERS FLOCK TO THE MOTHER
Matthews told his story with Our Lady of the Broken to a gathering of about 150 to 200 parishioners at San Antonio de Padua. Delivering a talk that was at times raw and personal and at other times raucous, Matthews reminded the parishioners to be nice, to be unabashedly Catholic, to go to confession and to recite the rosary (on his free app if you like). Then he invited them to come down and meet Our Lady of the Broken.
“She’s not mine, she’s yours,” he said. “Spend some time with her, she’ll clean you up. Go to her, she’s here.”
And so the faithful did just that for the next hour: singly, in pairs and in groups. Some knelt, some bowed, some just stood quietly. Some brought personal and sacred items to touch to the statue, some took pictures on their phones, some touched her broken hands and kissed her feet. And with faith they just may have left a piece of brokenness behind.