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The University of St. Thomas is the largest private institution of higher learning in the state of Minnesota, a school “inspired by Catholic intellectual tradition.” Recently, the university found itself in the embarrassing position of having failed to do some basic research; it did not check its sources.

The story behind this development began innocently enough in April, when a staff member from St. Thomas’s Justice and Peace Studies program informed his colleagues that he had booked South African archbishop Desmond Tutu for a campus appearance.

In early childhood Ben was diagnosed with a mild form of autism. His mother, who loves him dearly, is determined to help him move through the terrors of life in a high school where bullies torment him and classmates laugh at his suffering.

Ben is played with touching vulnerability by Greg Timmermans in the Belgian/Dutch film Ben X, which won the ecumenical jury award and shared the main jury award for best feature film at this year’s Montreal Film Festival.