LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Let's not be coy about this. Valentine's Day is widely celebrated as a romantic holiday that begins with lovers spending fortunes on one another, and often ends with the loving couple in bed. In many cases, this pair isn't married, and if they're in the U.S., they're taking a terrible risk.

Unmarried couples that engage in serial sexual relationships are virtually guaranteed to catch something. There are 110 million active cases of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in the U.S. Young people, between the ages of 15 to 25, are spreading about half of those diseases. The reports themselves explain that the rate of STI infection is very high and describes the problem as a "severe, ongoing epidemic." In 2008 alone, there were 20 million new infections in the U.S.

Those are just the ones are detected and reported. The actual number may be much, much higher.

STIs (commonly referred to as STDs) are entirely preventable, since sexual contact must occur in order to transmit the germs. By abstaining from such contact, an individual is protected from infection. This is the only method that reliably provides 100 percent protection against STIs.

In the U.S. the most common infections include chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis, herpes, human papillomavirus (HPV), hepatitis B, HIV, and trichomoniasis. Several of these diseases can cause death, including HIV which develops into full-blown AIDS and is subsequently fatal, and HPV, which can cause cervical and penile cancer.

All STIs are embarrassing as well as uncomfortable, which should discourage promiscuous behavior, however, such common sense runs counter to popular culture, and the STI industry, which continually insists that promiscuity is both normal and expected.

Here the news goes from bad to worse. This epidemic costs Americans about $16 billion annually for direct medical expenses alone, according to the reports. Naturally, there are many who profit from the business.

Those profiteers are the same ones pushing condoms in the schools and the myth of "safe sex." However, we have tried putting condoms in schools for decades, yet we now have more disease than ever. The real problem is that the money changers have infected the temple once again.

Following the reports, some physicians have elected to use them as a base for promoting non-abstinence based measures, such as condom use and vaccinations. Although vaccinations generally make good sense, abstinence makes the best sense, as it remains the only way to prevent infection. Yet most insidiously, some servants of the STI industry that want to distribute condoms and HPV vaccinations at children's schools.

Many colleges already provide these services. A few campuses have even experimented with vending machines which provide abortifacients.

All of these efforts are wrong and play into the hands of the industry.

It should be understood that condoms are contraceptive devices and the Church teaches against their use on moral grounds. The first purpose of an abortifacient is to destroy life, and as such it is immoral. (The second purpose is to produce profit for the manufacturer and seller.) Finally, school-age children should not be taught in any context, that unmarried sexual behavior is "safe" or appropriate as long as one has a condom or a vaccination.

Tonight, if you're unmarried, understand that the safest way to end your date is with a walk to the doorstep. If you go further, you risk becoming another CDC statistic, and a client of the $16 billion per year STI industry. And that's still not to mention the moral implications of your activity.

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