He is caught in a web. He knows better, I think. But he doesn’t dare name any candidate, and he doesn’t dare destroy his respectability at the bishops’ conference (like Bruskewitz and Burke, who are non-persons), but he wants to be accepted among a certain kind of “conservative”—the First Things and CRISIS crowd.
He also has to know that the wrath of Bergoglio will come down on him if he sounds too much like Burke. Bergoglio likes bishops like Cupich, who is overtly pro-Democrat and overtly pro-abortion. (According to Cupich, getting aborted is no worse than being unemployed or “undocumented.”)
There is some strong “pro-life” language in this article, but he NULLIFIES EVERY BIT OF IT by DENIGRATING all people who might vote for Trump. He characterizes ALL Trump voters as people who use “some strange calculus.”
Do not be surprised that once Pope Francis turns 80, he will look into stepping down. The hint he gave was at the end of the WYD gathering in Poland a few weeks back that he said the next one he will not be there, that is in 3 years time, in Panama.