Does anyone else feel that it was utterly immoral, not to mention stupid, of Michael to put Mary as the head of the Vito Corleone Foundation? Surely he knew how dangerous it was?

He used the money from that Foundation to buy out Immobliare, which he knew all the other Families wanted a piece of, and much of the Corleone Family's wealth seemed to be allocated or invested into the Foundation.

Even Don Altobello comments, saying that if Michael dies, "the daughter" (meaning Mary) "gets everything". Meaning all the Family's accumulated wealth, along with Immobliare. And Anthony tells her point blank she was being used as a front, to make the Immobliare deal appear to have the total seal of legitimacy.

Who better could he use than his pretty, young, pristine daughter? It'd be like Vito putting Michael (pre the Five Families War) in charge of the Genco Olive Oil Company--An innocent put as the guardian of the war chest.

He was using the clean image of Mary--the innocent, young, totally legitimate daughter--to cloak himself in legitimacy. Using her as the head of the Foundation to help buy his own redemption. Putting her in charge of millions, if not billions, of dollars of blood money. Money earned from illegal gambling, narotics, prostitution, in essence blackening her own soul unwittingly--tying her destiny to his through BUSINESS.

Yes, Michael got his redemption. He got his legitimacy. But it came with the heavy price of a bullet in his daughter's chest. The daughter who he used as a front to buy that legitimacy. He was in essence trading her soul or her life for his salvation. And he had to know what he was doing.

I actually think putting her in that position was as immoral as anything he ever did. Because he was smart enough to know how dangerous it was. Smart enough to know all the money was blood money--putting Mary in charge of it. The fact that he put his children in charge of something that even had the possibility of having a TINGE of illegitimacy is disgraceful.

He was using his daughter's clean soul, to clear his own blackened soul of it's sins.

Buying fake "redemption" from the Church. What he didn't realize is that redemption can't be bought. it can't be paid for with a gift of $500 million. It can't be awarded with the pin from the Pope. It has to earned by actually repenting and seeking forgiveness, and he could never truly repent as Cardinal Lamberto said. It can't be earned simply by giving up the title of Mafia Boss, while knowing that giving it up meant more murder would ensue, just not ordered by him. He was not ordering murder nor was he a Don, but was still an accessory to it nonetheless.

He was in essence, if you want to go deeper, sullying the Church--though they went along with it--making a farce of the idea of Redemption--and sullying and dirtying his daughter's spirit with his blood money and putting her in grave danger only to help himself. If the Church were the Borgias as he called them, he was any corrupt Catholic buying an indulgence--But using his daughter's soul to make the transaction look innocent.