First of all, anyone in the military who has lost their right arm/hand during combat is certainly free to salute using their left. It is also true that any candidate for the priesthood must be physically “whole;” having no bodily defects, abnormalities, or handicaps of any kind. This has been the Priesthood’s prescribed tradition since Old Testament time.
If a clergymen losses a digit or appendage in an accident after he is ordained he would obviously still retain his priestly or diaconal position by virtue of the ordination itself. However, the severity or extent of their injury will undoubtedly determine whether or not they were still able to fulfill their vocation or “function” in their liturgical duties (i.e. distributing Holy Communion, censing, offering blessings, etc.).
As far as prostheses go, I think each situation would need to be looked at on a case by case basis by the bishop. In other words, a prosthetic leg or foot would be totally different in a liturgical setting then would say a prosthetic arm or hand.
On an interesting side note: Being from Minnesota, I grew up using a chain saw to fell trees and cut wood. Then near the end of my seminary career, I went home to Minneapolis for spring break and was at my brother’s house while his father-in-law was cutting down a pretty good-sized lilac bush in my brother’s back yard. Since I was there, I decided to lend a hand and picked up the chain saw to help cut up the branches. All of a sudden my brother’s father-in-law grabbed the chain saw from me and scolded me in Russian, saying, “Give me that, you have to say the ‘Our Father’!” Basically what he meant was, since I was going to be a priest, I couldn’t do anything that might jeopardize my chances of getting ordained – like cutting off my fingers. I had never thought about it before, but I remember saying to myself, “You know, Pete’s right!”
