Why We Started Cairnlight Co

Cairnlight Co was born from a simple conviction: Catholic media can be beautiful again.

For more than half a century, faith-based film and video production have lagged behind the cultural curve. The Church that once built cathedrals, composed symphonies, and painted the ceilings of heaven somehow stopped leading the conversation in visual beauty. We became comfortable talking about truth and goodness, but forgot that beauty is what draws people in.

We convinced ourselves that if the message was true, the method didn’t matter. But the modern world doesn’t see it that way. In an age where images shape imagination, the way we show something often speaks louder than what we say. If our work looks careless or uninspired, the message behind it feels the same.

That tension, the distance between what we proclaim and how we present it, is what gave birth to Cairnlight Co: a Catholic film and video production company based in Chicago, founded to restore beauty to the heart of storytelling.

I’ve long believed that beauty is not an accessory to truth, but its doorway. We live in a time when arguments rarely change minds and moral appeals often harden hearts. But beauty, true and disarming beauty, cuts through resistance. It doesn’t need to persuade; it simply reveals.

When someone encounters a work of art, a cinematic image, or a story told with care, something in them stirs. They feel drawn toward it. Beauty speaks a universal language. It captures attention without violence and it converts without coercion.

That’s why film is such a powerful form of evangelization. Video allows truth, goodness, and beauty to work together, with sound and image and story fused into one act of communication. When a film is made beautifully, the audience senses integrity. They see that you’ve taken your message seriously. And in that seriousness, hearts begin to open.

This isn’t a new idea. The Church has always been called to use the tools of the age to share timeless truths. In the early 1900s, Blessed James Alberione was already urging Catholics to use the printing press, radio, and film to reach souls. A few decades later, Fulton Sheen stood in front of television cameras and made theology feel like theater, his confidence and poise proving that faith could be compelling on screen.

In our own time, figures like Bishop Robert Barron have continued that legacy through Word on Fire, which has set a modern standard for Catholic content that meets the world with beauty and intelligence. And behind so much of that work stands Spirit Juice Studios, a creative force that helped redefine what Catholic production could look like, pairing reverence with cinematic craftsmanship and setting a bar for excellence across the industry.

Together, they showed what was possible. They reminded the Church that media, when done well, can be a ministry of beauty.

Cairnlight Co exists to carry that vision forward, to take the torch and keep climbing.

The name itself holds that mission. A cairn is a stack of stones placed to mark a trail, simple human-made signs meant to guide travelers through wild places. Light is the symbol of clarity, revelation, and grace. Together, Cairnlight represents our desire to build markers of beauty that help others find their way.

We’re not a charity or a church department. We’re a creative production company made up of filmmakers, writers, and artists who believe that beauty is a form of truth-telling. From short films and documentaries to branded campaigns and aerial cinematography, we create Catholic media that looks and feels as meaningful as the message it carries.

Our work isn’t about competing with Hollywood. It’s about reminding the Church that she once was the Hollywood of the world: the place where art, imagination, and craftsmanship met the sacred.

If you’ve ever stepped into one of Chicago’s old cathedrals, you’ve felt that heritage. The way the light catches on stone and glass, the echo of a hymn rising through vaulted air—it’s all designed to move you before a single word is spoken. That’s the same spirit we hope to rekindle through our films: an experience of the sacred that can be seen, heard, and felt.

Someone may not yet be ready to believe what we believe. They may not accept the truths we hold or the moral framework we live by. But if they can stand with us, even for a moment, in the presence of beauty, if they can feel that spark of awe, then grace has already begun its quiet work.

That is why Cairnlight Co exists: to build bridges of beauty that lead people toward truth and goodness.

We believe Catholic film and media shouldn’t settle for being “good enough.” The world deserves to see the Church at her best, creating with excellence, daring to be beautiful, and telling stories that illuminate the human heart.

Because when beauty leads, the soul follows.

And that’s why we started Cairnlight Co.