I remember asking some time ago, if the Holy spirit guided the college of cardinals in their selection of the new pope and don't ever recall getting a clear or definitive answer.
In the afternoon, they assemble in the Pauline Chapel and invoke the guidance of the Holy Spirit.Cut//
While these regulations seem very exacting, we must not forget the role of the Holy Spirit. Throughout the conclave, the Cardinal electors, individually and collectively, implore the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Such divine aid was best exemplified in the election of Pope John Paul II. Who would have thought that the fifty-eight-year-old Archbishop of Cracow, Poland (at that time a communist country behind the Iron Curtain and under the control of the atheistic Soviet Union) would be elected Pope? He was not one of the media’s papabili or one of the Vatican curial officials. But what a great blessing he has been and is for our Church. Truly, one day he will be known as “Pope John Paul II, the Great.” Therefore, we may rest assured that, whenever the occasion will arise, another Successor of St. Peter will be elected under the guidance of the Holy Spirit to lead the Holy Roman Catholic Church.