‘Broken Mary’ author to speak in Oconto Falls

Kevin Matthews, a former Chicago radio personality who wrote “Broken Mary, A Journey of Hope,” is scheduled to speak at St. Anthony Catholic Church on April 26.

Matthews spent 30 years in radio including 17 years as a popular drive-time host whose characters included a sports commentator named Jim Shorts, but his life changed with a chance encounter when he found a statue of the Virgin Mary that someone had broken in half and left next to a dumpster.

“I heard a voice, a voice I’ll never forget,” Matthews says in a short video called “There is hope for the broken.” “This stern voice said, ‘Will you deny me? Will you deny my mother?’ I ended up taking the statue. I took her because she was broken, and so was I.”

He took the statue to a priest to have it blessed, arranged to have it partially restore, and that was the beginning of a ministry called The Broken Mary Project, offering hope to people who feel broken.

“The message of Broken Mary is we’re all broken. Everyone,” Matthews has said. “We’re not perfect, we’re flawed, but we’re loved.

Matthews is scheduled to speak after a 5:30 p.m. Mass at the church, 253 N. Franklin St., Oconto Falls. A social is planned afterward and Matthews will sign copies of his book.