That would be a shame considering his position for decades on the Novus Ordo, even if he was wrong about himself being the Pope.

Who knows what the truth is?  His obituary called him "Father Bawden", but then who wrote that?  It sounds as if his condition came on suddenly and that he probably became critical very quickly, and those are situations where people around him might have called in the NO priest to administer Last Rites and then claim he was reconciled.

If he did, after 32+ years of insisting that the V2 papal claimants are Antipopes, then one has to ask whether he REALLY believed that he was the pope or if it was only half-sincere the entire time.

And who knows what people mean when they say "reconciled".  The obituary said he repented of his schism.  Well, I hope he realized that calling himself "pope" for years was wrong, even if his intentions were good.  So assuming he did repent of this error/schism, that doesn't mean he "reconciled with the novus ordo".  It's possible that one of his novus ordo relatives heard he stopped being "pope" and assumed he went back to new rome.  The right course of action, hopefully confirmed by this priest, is he just went back to being a Trad priest/bishop (whatever his true orders were).  Either way, i'll pray for him.

Matthew, remove my post and ban me for gossip.

Nah, it wasn't that big of a deal.  You simply posted a link to something a NO priest wrote.

Matthew, remove my post and ban me for gossip.

You did nothing wrong. There's conflicting information and anecdotes because he just died two days ago. 

What you posted here seconds before my post backs up my speculation ... that he was not in a conscious state to perform any such reconciliation with the Conciliar Church.  They claimed the same thing of Archbishop Thuc after they kidnapped him and then wouldn't let anyone near him as he passed away.

Which brings me back to wondering...how did he end up in a coma with a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 62?

I can't take these claims very seriously. There is no proof that I can see. David Bawden's website is still up, in which he claims to be pope. Wouldn't he have to take that down if he "repented"? Maybe you could say he retracted his ways in his last moments, but then, where's the proof?

The obituary is a little strange inasmuch as it refers to him as "Father David", but that was something he obviously didn't write. I think it's a lot more likely that either the people who published the obituary didn't want him to be referred to as the pope, or more likely it was written by a family member who was embarrassed about his claim to the papacy but didn't want to refer to him simply as if he were a layman, so they chose "Father David" as some sort of middle ground.

The obituary is a little strange inasmuch as it refers to him as "Father David", but that was something he obviously didn't write. I think it's a lot more likely that either the people who published the obituary didn't want him to be referred to as the pope, or more likely it was written by a family member who was embarrassed about his claim to the papacy but didn't want to refer to him simply as if he were a layman, so they chose "Father David" as some sort of middle ground.

That is exactly what I was thinking.  They very well may have wished to honor his priesthood, but didn't want to expose him to public ridicule by calling him "Pope Michael" as well.  I also noticed that he was active in community affairs there in Topeka, so if he were simply known as "Father Bawden", people (except for practicing Novus Ordo Catholics) would have pretty much taken that at face value.  Ministers of religion can be found in every corner of secular life --- mechanics, auto dealers, librarians, security guards (just to name examples from my own community) --- and nobody gives it a second thought.