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Our world lead, an ex-ttense report by the catholic church itself finds retired pope benedict knew priests were abusing children when he was archbishop of munich but refused to act. pope benedict's spokesperson says he has not read the 1,000-page report yet and adds benedict, quote, as he has many times during the years of his time as pope expressed his pain and shame for the abuses of minors. cnn's vatican correspondent is live for us. give us a sense of the scale of this investigation. >> reporter: well, jake, the report is over 1,800 pages. it spans a time period of seven years in the archd...

He ended that service in a manner we have all come to expect, tending to the lambs and his worldwide flock. john allen was watching as always, cnn's vatican analyst joins me from rome. great to have you with us, john. >> merry christmas to you, pam. >> merry christmas. tell us what your takeaway was from the christmas message and how it was different from the predecessors. >> reporter:, of course, the mechanics the ritual are pretty much the same every year, those are all things we have seen before, but in many ways this was a vintage francis performance. the theme throughout is what the catho...

Mentioned, the vatican saying it got a record number of requests, really a reflection of the pope's populate. is he boosting attendance at regular churches? >> reporter: it depends on what part of the world we're talking about, pam. there was a recent survey in the united states that found at least so far they couldn't detect an up tick in mass attendance or people who would identify themselves as catholics in the united states. other than the, there was a recent survey here in italy that found that more than half the country's catholic parish priests report they have seen increases in mass at...