NYer asked: "Again, I would ask that you please elaborate."
To which Kolokotronis responded: "A lack of belief in the real presence among many, touching the chalice and the host, "eucharettes", the abrogation of fasting rules, handing out communion to people who are manifestly living in sin or otherwise not living in accord with the teachings of the Church...."
(I found your comments humorous, as I sit here eating pita and hummus in observance of the Friday fast.)
While I would consider your comment to be a fair appraisal of the status quo in many RCC parishes, that's not a fair assessment of the status quo in the eastern Catholic churches. Which makes me again wonder why certain Orthodox view the eastern Catholics with disdain (current company clearly excepted).
We worship in a very similar way to the Orthodox, we have the same creed MINUS the filioque, many of the same prayers, we celebrate the eucharist similarly, we use leavened bread, and we never, ever, ever, have "Eucharettes" in mini-skirts distributing the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.
So what gives? Is this strictly politics or is it the Pope as well?
Touche, my friend, touche!
"Which makes me again wonder why certain Orthodox view the eastern Catholics with disdain (current company clearly excepted)."
I suspect it has "pluriform" origins. In part some Orthodox view Eastern Rite Christians in communion with Rome as some species of apostate. From an Orthodox view point, the Papacy has a, shall we say, unhappy history, both theologically and ecclesiologically and Eastern Rite Catholics have bound themselves to that Papacy in derogation of what Orthodoxy views as proper theology and eccelsiology, while retaining the outward forms of Orthodoxy. In some other instances, that communion with Rome has meant an almost complete abandonment of their ancient Faith and liturgical forms and the utter destruction of their phronema, even to the point of accepting the destruction of their books of Holy Tradition and devotions and the imposition of Western forms and the Latin language. Orthodoxy is horrified by this.
Some Orthodox view some Eastern Rite Catholics as a sort of Fifth Column of the Papacy and certainly in some areas, in pursuit of, or at least in conjunction with, the temporal political ends of monarchs and the Eastern Church, that's exactly what they, or at least their hierarchs, were.
Let me add, on a personal note, that while I share the foregoing sentiments at least to a point, I must say that the recent opportunity presented here on FR to read the comments of the Eastern Rite bishops at the Synod in Rome, has been a real eye opener for me. Some might argue that the comments are designed to lull Orthodoxy into a false sense of security about Eastern Rite Catholicism, indeed that comment has been made elsewhere, but in all honesty I think that's complete egomania, what we sometimes call in Greek "Egwhtron". Those comments clearly are not about us, and just as clearly, and loudly and forcefully about exactly what we Orthodox often see as deficiencies in Latin ecclesiology and praxis. What is quite clear, at least to me, is that it is not only the Orthodox Church which rejects Uniatism as a model for a reunion of the Churches, but also the Eastern Rite Catholics themselves!
Now let me make a little "prediction". Unless the Latin Church hears, understands, accepts and institutes what the Eastern Rite hierarchs are saying, there will be a reunion alright, the Eastern Rite Catholics with Orthodoxy.