He was an Apostolic Administrator and Eparchial Bishop from 1950 to 1981 of the Eastern Catholic Eparchy of Križevci and a Coadjutor Archbishop from 1961 to 1964 and an archbishop from 1964 to 1980 of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Belgrade.
Born in Donji Andrijevci, Austria-Hungary (present-day Croatia) in the Ruthenian family of Dionisije and Julija Bukatko in 1913, he was ordained a priest on 2 April 1939 by Bishop Dionisije Njaradi for the Eparchy of Križevci.
[1] He was appointed by the Holy See an apostolic administrator of Križevci on 1950 and two years later, on 23 February 1952 also was named as titular bishop of Severiana.
[2] He was appointed eparchial bishop of the Eparchy of Križevci on 22 July 1960, but the next year, on 2 March 1961, become a coadjutor archbishop and on 24 March 1964 an archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Belgrade.
Archbishop Bukatko continued to govern the Eparchy of Križevci as an apostolic administrator until his death.