WASHINGTON - To see Pope Benedict XVI, 15-year-old Shannon Gilmore had to tell a small lie.

Shannon, of Laurel, Md., who suffered an aneurysm in November and was in a coma for three weeks, neglected to mention to her doctors that she would be missing her physical therapy session Wednesday afternoon.

Well, I didn't ask," she said quietly, "I'm just playing hooky."

On the blanket she shared with her family rested the homemade birthday sign she made for the pope, who turned 81 that day.

On the lawn in front of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, thousands of Catholics and members of other denominations waited all afternoon. The pope met with U.S. bishops in the ...

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