CELAM
Lacunza was appointed an auxiliary bishop of the archdiocese by Pope John Paul II on 30 December 1985, for which he was consecrated on 18 January 1985, with the titular see of Parthenia. On 29 October 1994, Pope John Paul appointed him the Bishop of Chitré. He was transferred to the office of Bishop of David by the same pope on 2 July 1999. He came to serve as President of the Episcopal Conference of Panama (2010–2013) as well as an official of the Latin American Episcopal Conference (CELAM). During this time he achieved national prominence through his mediation of a violent dispute which broke out between the government and the indigenous Ngöbe–Buglé people over the mining of their ancestral lands.