Who Picks the Pope

I have no intention of saying much on this blog about the upcoming conclave to elect the next pope, but I found a link to this article by John L. Allen, Jr., dated a few days before Ratzinger became pope, in a post on one of my old blogs. I thought this was an interesting bit:

[Ratzinger] was asked on Bavarian television in 1997 if the Holy Spirit is responsible for who gets elected pope, and this was his response: "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."

Then the clincher: "There are too many contrary instances of popes the Holy Spirit would obviously not have picked."