In 1880, after the Austrian-Hungarian occupation, Buconjić was appointed Apostolic Vicar of Herzegovina and a titular bishop of Magydus and was consecrated in Zagreb the same year.

He tried to postpone the restoration of the regular Church hierarchy until 1889, when Pope Leo XIII issued Decisia allowing Franciscans to retain some parishes and designating others to the diocesan clergy.

Paškal Buconjić was born in Drinovci near Grude, Herzegovina, which at the time was part of the Ottoman Empire, to father Stjepan and mother Vida (née Šimić).

[7] While lecturing in Rome, Buconjić connected with the members of the Pontifical Croatian College of St. Jerome, then a student at the Collegium Germanicum et Hungaricum Josip Stadler, who would become his good friend (and who later become the archbishop of Vrhbosna) as well as Cardinal Alessandro Barnabò, the Prefect of the Propaganda, which would influence his later life and help him become a bishop.

He visited Pope Pius IX at his residence in Castel Gandolfo and asked him to appoint a Herzegovinian Franciscan as the apostolic vicar.

Buconjić became suspicious of the Ottoman authorities, and for safety, he decided to move his residence from Široki Brijeg to the Franciscan friary in Humac near Ljubuški, so he can be closer to Dalmatia for escape.

Buconjić issued a booklet in Italian called "The Main Reasons for the Uprising of the Christian Population in Herzegovina" and gave it to six foreign consuls.

[29] The Franciscans of Herzegovina were on bad terms with Bishop Kraljević, claiming he did not give them enough of the collected alms for the construction of the friary in Humac.

[31] In February 1877, Kraljević asked the Propaganda to send an apostolic visitor to Herzegovina and accused Buconjić of neglecting the parishes and the Herzegovinian Franciscans of taking the payment for maintenance by force from the believers during the Easter Communion.

Forlani finished his report in May 1878; he advised the Bishop to act in agreement with the Franciscans, to record revenues and expenditures, and to help the construction of the friary in Humac.

[27] Not long after the occupation, Buconjić sent a telegram to Emperor Franz Joseph expressing his hope for the unification of Bosnia and Herzegovina with Croatia.

The General of the Franciscan Order advised not to elect the new leadership until the end of the visitation; he asked Forlani to make a list of suitable candidates and send it to the Propaganda in Rome.

[40] The Apostolic Vicar of Herzegovina, Bishop Anđeo Kraljević died on 27 July 1879 while on a visit to distribute chrism oils to Konjic.

After the Austrian-Hungarian occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1878, the chances for Buconjić to become a residential bishop with the restoration of the regular Church hierarchy became palpable, unlike those of Paškal Vuičić.

[48] From 5 July 1881, Pope Leo XIII with the apostolic bull Ex hac augusta restored the regular Church hierarchy in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The next year, the Franciscans established the Croatian Joint-stock Printing House in Mostar that published Osvit (the Daybreak), another political magazine supported by Buconjić.

[61] The main issue during Buconjić's episcopate diocese was the division of parishes between the diocesan clergy and the Franciscans, who tried to confirm their dominance in Herzegovina with Rome.

Even though the papal bull Ex hac augusta ended the privileges the Franciscans enjoyed in their missionary work, they still wanted to retain all of the parishes in the diocese.

Begić informed the General about the agreement in July 1883; he received no reply, so he wrote again in March 1885, when Buconjić was supposed to visit Rome and settle the issue.

That May, the General's deputy Andrea Lupori replied, asking Buconjić to take with him the contract about the parishes he signed and the definitors of the Custody.

[73] The Diocese of Trebinje-Mrkan suffered heavily during the Herzegovina uprising between 1875 and 1877; many Catholics and priests fled the area, and houses and churches were destroyed.

[77] Provicar of Trebinje-Mrkan Lazar Lazarević wrote to the Propaganda in Rome on 11 June 1887, again requesting the appointment of a new bishop and protection of Catholics from the new authorities.

Cardinal Luigi Galimberti, the new Nuncio in Vienna, started negotiations with Foreign Minister Count Gustav Kálnoky and showed him Rampolla's letter.

[80] On 17 June 1889, the Austrian-Hungarian government in Sarajevo and the Joint Ministry of Finance presented their proposal to Galimberti, in which they suggested the Bishop of Mostar-Duvno should administer Trebinje-Mrkan.

[82] The Austrian-Hungarian government also requested the Bishop of Mostar-Duvno, even though just an apostolic administrator, should have a regular jurisdiction in Trebinje-Mrkan and that he could appoint Franciscans to priestly duties.

Buconjić and other two Bosnian-Herzegovinian bishops, Stadler and the apostolic administrator of Banja Luka Marijan Marković proposed the changes to the Holy See's Secretariate of State.

His advisor, friar Radoslav Glavaš, the bishop's secretary,[88] used Buconjić's weak condition to remain in power and kept him uninformed and thus dependent.

Buconjić's stance so annoyed the elder Herzegovinian Franciscans the new Provincial Begić proposed himself as the bishop coadjutor during Emperor Franz Joseph's stay in Mostar on 3 June 1910.

[90] As requested by the canon law, on 19 December 1910, the Metropolitan Archbishop Stadler named Lazarević administrator in spiritual matters of the two Herzegovinian dioceses.

[101] After the friction about the candidates for bishop in Mostar, the Austrian-Hungarian authorities officially proposed Mišić to Rome for the post for the second time on 5 January 1912.