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.

[2] 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).

[5] 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.

The Wiesbaden group made it possible to build five eye clinics in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger and enabled young people to study ophthalmology or train to be opticians.

[1][9] He published a book by the cardinal of Burkina Faso, Philippe Ouédraogo, translated into German as Gott allein genügt (God alone suffices) by Stefanie Götzmann in 2018.

[10][11] Bardenhewer traveled to West Africa, seeking direct contact with the institutions there, such as in 2018 to Burkina Faso.

[6] He was buried at the Wiesbaden Südfriedhof on 23 April by Johannes zu Eltz, after a Requiem ("Resurrection Mass") at St.