Radio jock to evangelist: How a broken statue of Our Blessed Mother transformed a life

CHICAGO (OSV News) -- A movie about how a broken statue of Our Blessed Mother transformed a Chicago mega-rock radio personality is coming to theaters across the country for one day only, on the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, Oct. 7.

The movie "Broken Mary: The Kevin Matthews Story" -- produced by ODB Films, a nonprofit religious film producer -- Kevin Matthews at the peak of his radio career when he wowed 10 million listeners weekly with his wit and a cast of fictitious guests, all born out of his vivid imagination and versatile voice. He also had real guests -- big name media personalities, Hollywood stars, athletes and countless musicians -- at The Loop FM (and briefly AM), a popular Chicago rock music station.

He described a childhood growing up in "a tough part of Pontiac," Michigan, spent escaping his father's abuse by being funny.

"If I made him laugh he wasn't hittin' me," said Matthews while seated in a film studio, face and body positioned directly at the center of the screen. Across the screen images appeared of a glass of amber-colored liquor in ice next to a cigarette in an ashtray trailing a curl of smoke -- interspersed with his childhood photos.

This escape became Matthews' ticket to fame and tremendous success in the radio business, as well as in standup comedy at clubs in Chicago and Michigan. There were wild parties, excessive charity golf outings that were so lavish the costs ate into the funds raised, and strippers and bikini-clad or topless women, lots of them, at various events.

He said in the movie that through it all he remained Catholic, though from a far distance. In a medium that gets nervous over losing audiences, and advertising dollars, by "talking about this Jesus (expletive) on the air" -- as he quoted one of his radio bosses in the book on which the movie is based. Matthews said he used the influential media vehicle to help others.

He recounted to OSV News a religious sister who called into the "Kevin Matthews" show in Chicago asking help to secure diapers for crack cocaine babies.

"I said to my 10 million listeners, ‘We're gonna help this woman,' and we did for so many years," he said. "And I said, 'Don't buy just a box. I want a pallet of diapers.' And the same with Father Smith. He was a beautiful priest in Chicago who had an orphanage, and I helped him."

Then came the late '90s with media buyouts and mergers, changes in format, satellite radio combined with the advent of internet-based entertainment that competed directly with radio in the early 2000s as a powerful medium that drew audiences by being an intimate companion to every individual listener. The changes resulted in Matthews being fired three times while working in his beloved field in Chicago and Michigan.

Around the time that his days were numbered at his most prominent gig in Chicago in 2001, he also was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, or MS. It's an incurable autoimmune condition in which the body's immune system "mistakenly attacks" the protective covering around the brain and spinal cord nerves. It can cause muscle weakness, affect vision and create memory problems among other difficulties.

Matthews described in the movie his internal "comedy bit" reactions to this illness when diagnostics were being done to determine what it was. It manifested into what first looked like a tumor in his brain.

"I can't be serious (about it). I was so broken and it was until I'd said, ‘I'm so broken, I give up. Here. The pieces, the garbage, the beatings, I give it to you. I give it to you. Help me.' Boom! My life changed," said Matthews.

The movie showed that some years after struggling with the physical effects of MS, for which he was receiving treatment, and being out of radio, Matthews experienced what appeared to be a healing of his numb hand, which gained sensation and stayed fine. But after that, as days went by, "I forgot God."

His life took an even more dramatic turn after he had gone to confession and returned to church regularly. In 2010, Matthews, on a trip to buy flowers for his wife, happened upon a statue of Our Blessed Mother covered in garbage, broken in half. Her hands were folded in prayer with fingers broken off. Her two halves were left on the ground just next to the dumpster of the flower shop.

He said he was compelled to take the statue home and put her back together again. This took some convincing with the flower shop worker who finally relented when she recognized his voice and realized he was the famous radio personality she used to hear on the air and who got fired.

After having Mary's two halves put back together, Matthews decided to leave the 3-foot statue -- an ordinary sort of Mother Mary that one would find in someone's garden -- the way he found her.

When the statue restorer offered mending, he said in the film, "I started crying. I said, ‘No, I don't want her fixed. She reminds me of me.' I was garbage. I've got MS. I'm busted. I'm broken. I'm garbage. I could really relate. … ‘Keep her hands broken, chips, everything.'"

She became a symbol of his own brokenness. He said, "We're all broken and we're loved by God."

Matthews' pastor prompted him to speak at churches about his experience and the transformation the statue brought. Audiences responded well and Mother Mary became a potent tool for drawing people back to God.

What followed were an autobiography, "Broken Mary," about Matthews' journey of conversion, speaking engagements with the statue in tow and helping people return to the practice of confession and praying the rosary through his talks marked with his sense of humor, that brought crowds to kneelers around Our Blessed Mother, broken and chipped. Plus, he told OSV News, his rosary app has more than 2 million downloads.

Appearances of Broken Mary statue included a 2019 procession that thousands joined for almost 3 miles on a major street in the heart of Chicago, originating from St. John Cantius Church.

Father Joshua Caswell, superior of the St. John Cantius Canons Regular and a Canadian transplant to Chicago, told OSV News he invited Matthews to speak, after meeting him at the church and not knowing anything about his star-studded past.

"I didn't know who he was, but he told me about the statue, and I was deeply moved by the story," said Father Caswell. "I was so moved that I said we had to have a procession and a walk with the statue in Chicago to bring Kevin home."

Six years later, Father Caswell described Matthews as his "very humble" best friend, whom he sees at least once a month, with overnight stays at the Canons Regular house, and texts on a regular basis. He called it divine providence "not that Kevin found Broken Mary but that she found him."

"Kevin's faith journey has been epic; he tries very hard to stay close to God. The last thing he wants to do is anything that would hurt Mother Mary's heart. His friends and former fans wouldn't recognize him anymore. He doesn't hang out with strippers anymore. He spends his time with nuns, priests, and the broken. He is the real deal," said Father Caswell, adding, "Every person should see (this film)."

In the interview with OSV News, Matthews described himself as God's "sinful, broken, little sheep dog" who gently nudges lambs along.

"Jesus left me with his mother to clean me up and she has," he said. "And so when I can send someone to Mary, she sends them to Christ, her son. And we've got a good deal worked out. I do nothing. They do the work."

Matthews and Father Caswell have coined a new title for the Virgin Mary: Our Lady of the Broken.