I was just responding to JoeFromSidney's comment: "I have to accept that Francis is the pope God wanted us to have", which implies (to me) that God chose this man. And although I'm not Catholic, it seems to me that the Cardinals are the ones that installed this man...they are responsible for this. Surely they knew of Francis' proclivities and philosophies?
I hope I haven't offended, it was just my own observation.
You are 100% correct that it's the cardinals in the 2013 conclave who chose Bergoglio to be pope.
The Holy Spirit is invoked to guide the election, but He does not control it in a direct, executive manner that would either control the electors' votes or constrain the free will of the man who is elected.
It's like you prayed to marry the right man. That doesn't guarantee that you would subsequently actually listen to the Holy Spirit, nor that the Holy Spirit would turn your sweetie into a ventriloquist's dummy, always saying and doing the right thing.
But it has been a topic of hot controversy amongst talky and thinky Catholics just how much the cardinals knew about the Argentinian candidate.
Apparently in the early 2000's, Pope John Paul II made a law saying that "politicking" before, during or after a papal conclave would nullify the results of their election.
My general impression (and I'm neither a gossip nor an insider) is that the really good Cardinals tended to over-comply, to the extent that they avoided any talk about this-or-that man's faults and failings. Meanwhile the really bad cardinals, who consider themselves "above the law", were campaigning like crazy.
There are tales of the now-laicized Cardinal (now "Mr.) Ted McCarrick prowling around the Termini with fat envelopes full of euros. And McCarrick is known to have been an early, active Bergoglio supporter.
Campaign manager,so to speak.
You are a dear lady.