Paškal Buconjić


Paškal Buconjić was a Herzegovinian Croat Franciscan, the first bishop of Mostar-Duvno from 1881 to 1910 and apostolic administrator of Trebinje-Mrkan from 1890 to 1910. He also served as Custos of the Franciscan Province of Herzegovina between 1874 and 1879.
Born in Drinovci in the region of Herzegovina during the Ottoman rule, Buconjić joined the Order of Friars Minor, commonly known as the Franciscans in 1851, and after a year of novitiate became a full member of the Order. He attended schools in Ferrara and the Papal States and was ordained a priest in 1856. He then lectured in Rome between 1860 and 1867, when he returned to Herzegovina, where he lectured in Široki Brijeg. He became a chaplain in 1871, and later a vicar in Drinovci in 1873. He was elected Custos of the Franciscan Province of Herzegovina 1874, a position he held until 1877.
During the Herzegovina Uprising he published a booklet titled "The Main Reasons for the Uprising of the Christian Population in Herzegovina", and sent it to the representatives of several European countries. At the Congress of Berlin in 1878, it was decided that Bosnia and Herzegovina will be occupied by Austria-Hungary. Buconjić was an important figure in Croatian politics during the Austro-Hungarian rule in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Catholic Church, after the Austrian-Hungarian occupation, wanted to restore the regular Church hierarchy, founding a new ecclesiastical province and dioceses. Buconjić was appointed Apostolic Vicar for Herzegovina and a titular bishop of Magydus in 1880 and was consecrated the same year in Zagreb. After the Diocese of Mostar-Duvno was established in 1881, Buconjić was appointed its bishop. As a bishop, he favored his religious order, the Franciscans, over the interests of his diocese. He tried to postpone the restoration of the regular Church hierarchy until 1889, when Pope Leo XIII issued the Decisia, allowing Franciscans to retain some parishes while designating others to the diocesan clergy. However, the Decisia was mostly ignored by the Franciscans. In 1890, he was appointed apostolic administrator of the Diocese Trebinje-Mrkan, a position previously held by the Bishop of Dubrovnik.

Early life and education

Paškal Buconjić was born in Drinovci near Grude in Herzegovina to father Stjepan and mother Vida née Šimić. He was baptised in Slivno as Stjepan. His family originated from Ošalj near Dubrovnik and were known as Vodopić. He was educated by Franciscans in Čerigaj from 1846 to 1849 and Široki Brijeg from 1849 to 1852.
He entered the Order of Friars Minor, commonly known as the Franciscans on 13 October 1851, and spent a year of novitiate in Široki Brijeg. After being ordained in the Franciscan Order in 1852, he took the name Paškal. He attended schools in Ferrara in the Papal States, where he was ordained a priest on 21 December 1856. He passed the professor exam in Bologne on 18 December 1858, where he discussed the natural law, earning the highest grades. When General Minister of the Franciscan Order Bernardino Trionfetti de Montefranco saw his grades, he invited Buconjić to Rome to lecture at the Central Franciscan University, where he was appointed professor on 8 June 1860. His lecturing drafts during his tenure weren't preserved, however, his speech given before the Pontifical Croatian College of St. Jerome was published under the title Speech on the Occasion of the Millennial Celebration of the SS Slavic Apostles Cyril and Methodius in 1863.
Buconjić returned to Herzegovina in 1867. He lectured in Široki Brijeg. In 1871 he was named a chaplain, and in 1873 he was appointed a vicar in Drinovci. He was elected Custos of the Franciscan Province of Herzegovina on 31 May 1874, for the term of three years.
Christian peasants in Herzegovina started to rebel against the Ottoman authorities in 1875. In order to find a peaceful solution, representatives of the United Kingdom, Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary, Italy and France arrived in Mostar. 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. In this booklet, Buconjić stated that high levies were the main factor for the rebellion. During Buconjić's tenure as custos, the theology education and novitiate were transferred from Široki Brijeg to the Humac Seminary near Ljubuški, and requested from the General Minister of the Franciscan Order to proclaim the seminary a monastery, which was approved on 5 March 1876. Buconjić became suspicious to the Ottoman authorities, and decided to move his residence for the safety reasons from Široki Brijeg to Humac as well.
The Franciscans of Herzegovina were on bad terms with Apostolic Vicar for Herzegovina, Bishop Anđeo Kraljević, claiming he didn't give them enough of the collected alms for the construction of the monastery in Humac. The conflict between the bishop and the Franciscans reached its peak during Buconjić's tenure. The reason for that was that Franciscans controlled all of the parishes in Herzegovina, while the bishop, even though a Franciscan himself, wanted to have diocesan clergy at his disposal. An aninomous letter was sent to Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary, claiming the bishop is giving donations sent to him by Austria-Hungary to the Ottomans and accused him of being a turkophile. The Franciscan Custody barred itself from this letter. In February 1877, Kraljević requested from the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples to send an apostolic visitor in Herzegovina and accused Buconjić of negligence towards the parishes and the Herzegovinian Franciscans of taking the payment for maintenance by force from the believers during the Easter Communion. The Congregation named Bishop Casimir Forlani the apostolic visitor, and he arrived in Mostar in February the next year. Forlani finished the report in May 1878, and advised Bishop to act in agreement with the Franciscans and to record revenues and expenditures, as well as to help the construction of the monastery in Humac. The question of the parishes remained unresolved.
While Forlani performed the visitation, Buconjić's three-year term was coming to an end. However, General Minister of the Franciscan Order advised Forlani that new administration of the Franciscan Province in Herzegovina shouldn't be elected until the end of the visitation. Bishop Forlani suggested to the Congregation a new administration for the Province, with Marijan Zovko replacing Buconjić as Custos, which as approved by the Congregation on 20 June 1879. The new administration named Buconjić guardian of the Humac monastery on 18 August 1879.
In 1878, Bosnia and Herzegovina was occupied by Austria-Hungary. Not long after Austria-Hungary occupied Bosnia and Herzegovina, Buconjić sent a telegram to Emperor Franz Joseph, where he expressed his hope for the unification of Bosnia and Herzegovina with Croatia. Buconjić had a leading role in the Croatian national movement in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where the new Austrian-Hungarian authorities forbade the usage of the Croatian and Serbian name.

Episcopate

named Buconjić apostolic vicar for Herzegovina and bishop of Magydus on 22 December 1879, replacing Anđeo Kraljević, which was confirmed by Pope Leo XIII on 11 January 1880. He was consecrated in Zagreb on 19 March. His episcopal motto was "All for the faith and homeland". Austrian-Hungarian occupation enabled the establishment of the regular church hierarchy in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Diocese of Mostar-Duvno was established on 5 July 1881, and Buconjić was appointed its bishop on 14 December 1881. On 8 July 1890 he was named apostolic administrator of Trebinje-Mrkan.
As a bishop, Buconjić favored the Franciscans, more than his diocese. Instead of opening seminaries for the education of the diocesan clergy, Buconjić helped founding two Franciscan seminaries, one as a gymnasium in Travnik, opened in 1882, and the other in Sarajevo as a theology seminary, opened in 1893. Only five diocesan priests have been ordained during his episcopate, compared to over 70 Franciscans being ordained.
He also gave away some of the diocesan property to the Franciscan Province of Herzegovina. He consecrated the cornerstone of the Franciscan monastery in Mostar on 19 March 1889. The monastery was built on the location of the former parish house, where the cathedral church - the present-day Church of Saint Peter and Paul - was also located. Buconjić agreed to make the church a monastery church, while the new cathedral church was ought to be built with help from the imperial government. He informed the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith about this on 14 May 1885. Buconjić bought the land for the new cathedral in the Rondo quarter of Mostar. The property where the new cathedral was ought to be built was later put under a lien in benefit of the Franciscan Province of Herzegovina due to debt, at the time when Buconjić was bedridden.
The main issue in his diocese was the division of parishes between the diocesan clergy and the Franciscans. Buconjić postponed this issue as far as he could, even though the papal bull Ex hac augusta ended all the privileges the Franciscans enjoyed in their missionary work, they still wanted to retain all of the parishes in the diocese. The question was discussed from 1881 till until 17 July 1899, when Pope Leo XIII confirmed the Decisia, by which 14 parishes were designated to the diocesan clergy, while others were left to the Franciscans. Bishop Buconjić published the Decisia only in 1908. At the beginning of this publication it was written: "We considered it adequate to present before the eyes of the priests of our dioceses, and especially to the young ones, the copies of the solemn Decisia in relation to the parishes established or those ought to be established. This Decisia must remain solid and constant to avoid any dissent or changeability of wishes". He asked the Pope for permission to trust certain dioceses to the Franciscans, as he lacked the diocesan priests. With time, however, the Deceisa remained neither solid nor constant and "the dissent and changeability of wishes" weren't avoided. The will of bishop Buconjić about the division of the parishes wasn't respected.
Buconjić brought the Franciscan nuns in Mostar in 1899 and granted the Sisters of Mercy a house and a yard in Ljubuški. Buconjić built the Episcopal Residence in Glavica, Mostar from 1905 to 1909, and moved in it on 24 March 1909.
During his 30-year episcopate, five diocesan priests in the Diocese of Mostar-Duvno were ordained, compared to the 74 Franciscans who were priestly ordained. Buconjić died in Mostar on 8 December 1910 and was buried in the Church of Saint Peter and Paul, the church he converted from the cathedral one to a monastery church. During the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, his tombstone, as well as the Church of Saint Peter and Paul, were destroyed by the Serb forces in 1992. His remains were transferred to a cemetery in Šoinovac.

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