page_title: Werner Bardenhewer
section_title: Religious career
hierarchical_section_title: Werner Bardenhewer / Religious career
caption_attribution_description: English: africa action / Deutschland, meeting of Bishop Ambroise (Maradi, Niger), Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul (patron), members of the board, members, in front of the state parliament of Hesse, WiesbadenDeutsch: africa action / Deutschland, Treffen von Bischof Ambroise (Maradi, Niger), Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul (Schirmherrin), Vorstandsmitgliedern, Mitgliedern, vor dem Landtag in Wiesbaden
context_page_description: Joseph Werner Bardenhewer was a German Catholic priest. He was Dean of Wiesbaden, the state capital of Hesse, at the central parish St. Bonifatius from 1974 to 1996. He served for two years at the Eibingen Abbey founded by Hildegard of Bingen. In 1999, he founded the Wiesbaden chapter of the charity organisation africa action, which provides help in health care and education in countries of the Sahel region. He was active as a priest until his death, and had traveled to West Africa to contact the partner organizations. He received Burkina Faso's highest national award, the Knight of the country's National Order, in 2016.
context_section_description: His first position was as Kaplan (assisting priest) in Nauort from 1 January 1956. In mid-1959, he was called to the administration of the Diocese of Limburg by Alexander Stein, to serve as the Diözesansekretär of the Sozialreferat (Department for Social Affairs). From 1962, he was a priest for the Berufsschule in Wiesbaden. From 1967, he was vicar of the Wiesbaden parish St. Andreas and became its parish priest on 1 November 1968. Simultaneously, he was the dean of the section Wiesbaden-Mitte from 1971 to 1974. He co-founded an ecumenical association, Arbeitsgemeinschaft Sozialer Brennpunkt (Working group social focal point), in close collaboration with the Protestant parish of Matthäus, political parties, schools and social groups.
  Bardenhewer was the parish priest of Wiesbaden central Catholic parish St. Bonifatius, Wiesbaden, from 16 June 1974 until his retirement on 31 January 1996. The officeholder has traditionally also been dean of Wiesbaden. His focus was social work, both in the parish and beyond, the deepening of faith in services and especially a 1992 action "Aufbruch '92", and spiritual communication in several groups in the parish. He was inspired by the Second Vatican Council and named the new parish house "Roncalli-Haus" after Pope John XXIII. He was president of the local Caritas organization and on the board of St. Josefs-Hospital. After his retirement at age 67, Bardenhewer served for two years as the Spiritual, the priest of Eibingen Abbey in Rüdesheim, which Hildegard of Bingen had founded.
caption: Bardenhewer (fourth from right) between Bishop Ambroise Ouédraogo from Maradi, Niger, and Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul with members of the board of africa action in Wiesbaden in 2011
exif: {}