Jason Evert, a nationally recognized speaker on healthy relationships and chastity, gave a presentation to the students of Saint Patrick High School on Wednesday, October 3, 2007.  The Respect Life Office of the Archdiocese of Chicago sponsored Evert’s visit.

Evert spoke to an audience of 1,000 young men at Chicago’s oldest all-male Catholic high school for just over an hour.  Evert discussed the reasons that teens feel pressured into becoming sexually active, and he gave the students a plan of how to deal with those pressures.  One of the most effective techniques that Evert suggested to the students was for them to imagine their future wives and children, and make decisions based on how they might affect them or how they would like their future wives and daughters to be treated.

Evert warned the students about a variety of Sexually transmitted diseases, and gave them a series of shocking statistics about the one of the most common STDs, human papilloma virus (HPV).  At least 50 percent of sexually active men and women acquire genital HPV infection at some point in their lives.   By age 50, at least 80 percent of women will have acquired genital HPV infection.

Evert used his own story as a man who practiced chastity until his wedding night, as well as his wife Crystalina’s experiences as a girl who was sexually active in high school, but made a commitment to start over by living a chaste life, which helped to turn her life around.  The Everts now live in San Diego, California with their children.  The Everts speak to over 100,000 teens each year in Catholic, Christian, and public junior and senior high schools, as well as universities.  More information is available at www.pureloveclub.com.