I agree that it boggles the mind how the Cardinals selected Francis. But Pope Benedict was supposed to be on death’s doorstep when he stepped aside and he’s still alive so who knows what kind of machinations went on. Its a very strange turn of events to say the least.
Surely he wasn’t incommunicado though. Maybe he was afraid of violating protocol in which the choice came down to the cardinals and a previous occupant of “Peter’s seat” didn’t say anything. Sadly, they had a set of cardinals with rotten judgment at that point. The selection model broke.