You have a resident priest on FR who says that God and the Holy Spirit have nothing to do with picking a pope...In fact, pope Benedict makes the same claims...
Replying to the question “does the Holy Spirit pick the Pope?” Then Cardinal Ratzinger said:
“I would not say so, in the sense that the Holy Spirit picks out the Pope…I would say that the Spirit does not exactly take control of the affair, but rather like a good educator, as it were, leaves us much space, much freedom, without entirely abandoning us. Thus the Spirit’s role should be understood in a much more elastic sense, not that he dictates the candidate for whom one must vote. Probably the only assurance he offers is that the thing cannot be totally ruined.”
I’m rereading Benedict’s three books re Jesus of Nazareth. The man is a genius. So I’m pretty much okay with this quote.