If senators and presidents have men killed, who is truly legitimate? The Vatican! Or so Michael deluded himself into believing. Hence his frustration when he sees how crooked even the Church hierarchy is, making him decide to give up and cede control to Vincent.
But this makes me wonder what Michael's true goal was.
Did he truly wanted to be legitimate? Because why would Michael only give up his criminal business to Vincent when he realised that even the "holy" Vatican itself was crooked? Hadn't he already handed the Corleone crime family over to Joey Zasa?
Or did he only want to pretend and be recognised to be legitimate, and still control his criminal organization so he could use it for his own benefit when the opportunity presented itself?
