Two buildings, one on a main street in Belmont, the other on a similar street in Watertown, stir memories in me when I drive by them.

They now serve as home to condo dwellers.  Until a few years ago, both buildings were parish churches.  Along with my parents and my brothers and sisters, I worshiped in both of them.

The Belmont church played a special role in my life.  It was where I made my first holy communion. Dressed in a white suit, together with other seven-year-olds, I received the host and later celebrated the event in the parish hall.

More than 25 years later, as a newly ordained priest, I celebrated my first Mass there.

I do not associate the Watertown church with such important milestones. Still, the  youthful years I spent in this parish helped shape my spiritual life.

To have seen both structures go from sacred to secular, as I did a few years ago, marked a radical shift— one of many that have touched my life. Had you asked me, I would never have predicted the shutting down and making over of so many churches.

The reason why it has happened is clear: many Americans no longer identify with the religion in which they grew up.  Former Catholics are said to number one out of every ten Americans. Were they considered a separate religion, they would be the second largest one in this country.

Speculation continues about why so many Catholics have left their church.  Some researchers think it’s because many people, especially the young, find churches too concerned with money and power and too caught up with rules and politics.

The numbers leaving the church are counter balanced by immigrant Catholics. Their presence among us explains why the overall number of American Catholics remains about the same.

The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life is my source for this information about Catholics.  Last month it reported surprising figures about Protestants and other groups.

For the first time in history, fewer than one half of Americans identify as Protestant. The decline in members within the mainline churches—Episcopal, Congregational, Baptist, and others—continues.

A group not in decline is what researchers call the “Nones.” (Though pronounced like “nuns,” the name for women in religious orders, this term denotes their polar opposite.) “Nones” are people who are atheists, agnostics, and others who profess no connection with religion.

Incidentally, Massachusetts has been found to be almost the least religious state in the union. Only 40 percent of residents say religion is “very important in their lives” as contrasted with 82 percent in number one Mississippi.

These data are interesting for many reasons. But I also see the findings as pointing to vital changes in my own life.

Religion has always ranked as among the most important of my interests and involvements.  Now I discover that an increasingly large number of my fellow Americans don’t much value it.

Yes, I realize that many of those disaffected by religion will say they are “spiritual and not religious.” But that remains a far cry from how religion has influenced my life.

Many members of my extended family and many of my friends no longer value the religion in which they and I were raised.  It pains me to know that things still important to me no longer count for them.

I could argue against their positions but this might spoil my relationship with them.

But it consoles me to know that they care for me as I do for them.

The differences between us, which can never be resolved by argument, are daily bridged by friendship and love.