One cousin has already refused to accept the inheritance; four others have not yet responded. If they are smart, they will turn it down as well.

The Vatican has governance norms when a pope resigns or dies, but none of those regulations apply to a sick, unconscious or hospitalized pope.

On “Inside the Vatican” this week, hosts Gerard O’Connell and Colleen Dulle discuss the pope's recent hospitalization to undergo surgery for a hernia causing intestinal blockage.

"The surgery on the pope has finished,” the Vatican press office said in a statement on the evening of June 7. “It was done without complications, and lasted three hours.”

Cardinal Matteo Zuppi has begun a two-day peace mission in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, today, “as the envoy of the Holy Father Francis,” the Vatican announced on June 5.

According to many in the Vatican, Archbishop Gänswein’s tell-all book published shortly after Benedict’s death revealed a lack of trustworthiness, loyalty and reserve on the part of a man who was meant to be serving two popes.