need. john allen here to talk about all these changes as we head into a new year. he's cnn's senior vatican analyst. he's joining us live from rome. we're talking about a pope that brought homeless men to his apartment on his birthday. how unique of an approach is that? >> reporter: well, we should remember that pope francis didn't bring just three homeless men to his apartment for a piece of birthday cake. they also brought their dog. it was a very inclusive birthday celebration. >> i'm so sorry. i didn't mean to forget the dog. >> reporter: well, named for bob march marley, one of the guys told me that. probably the only time the name bob marley has been voiced in the vatican. but he has brought a lot of substantive changes. he's created a commission to deal with the sex abuse mess. he's issued tough new laws to clean up vatican finances, try to avoid some of the scandals that have washed through this