GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Pope Leo XIV this week blessed a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary known as the “Broken Mary,” part of a project organized by Michigan native and former Chicago radio host Kevin Matthews.
The pope, a Chicago native who went to high school in West Michigan, also approved the name “Our Lady of the Broken” for the statue.
Matthews found the statue in a dumpster in 2010. The image struck him and he rescued the statue, taking it on tour as a symbol of God’s enduring love even when a person feels hurt and abandoned. Matthews himself was struggling at the time after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis…