During the business day, Eric Andrews is chief executive of Paulist Productions. Off-hours, he takes confessions and leads services at St. Paul the Apostle Church in Westwood.

Pretty odd moonlighting job for an entertainment executive?

Not in Father Andrews’ case.

The Catholic priest was hired by the company in 2009 to revive its spiritually themed programming, which went dormant in 2005, five years after founder – the famous “Hollywood priest” Ellwood “Bud” Kieser – died at 71. The first fruit of Andrews’ labor is a drama called “The Lost Valentine,” starring Jennifer Love Hewitt and Betty White, which was scheduled to air Sunday on CBS.

“Hollywood hasn’t really acknowledged that there’s a great market for spiritually based content, especially in the center of the country,” said Andrews, who, like Kieser before him, is a member of the Paulist Fathers, an order that evangelizes through all available forms of media and communication.

The company was founded 50 years ago by Kieser to exploit what he felt was the humanizing potential of television. It made its name with a half-hour Emmy-winning drama series called “Insight” that ran for 23 years starting in the 1960s. It also produced the 1989 feature film “Romero,” about the assassinated Salvadoran archbishop.

But after the Federal Communications Commission in 1987 rescinded its requirement that broadcast TV stations air some public interest programming, Paulist subsisted on a few cable specials and documentaries before eventually petering out.

Still, the studio built up what Andrew called a “nest egg,” and under his leadership is financing new projects, including reality show “Should I Marry You?,” in which couples consider whether they should partner for life.

Andrews is even considering selling the company’s Pacific Coast Highway headquarters to finance productions.

“We could sit at our wonderful beachfront location in Malibu,” he said, “but that doesn’t accomplish what we’re really here to do.”