Pope Francis has officially approved a major change to the Lord’s Prayer, one of the most famous prayers in the Christian faith.
According to UCatholic, during the General Assembly of the Episcopal Conference of Italy on Wednesday, May 22, the Pope approved altering the phrase “lead us not into temptation” to “do not let us fall into temptation.”
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The change, according to the site, was a result of the belief that the original translation from Matthew 6:13 implies that God leads people into temptation, something that portrays him in a false light, as it is Satan who “leads you astray.”
“I am the one who falls; it’s not Him pushing me into temptation to then see how I have fallen,” Pope Francis claimed after the change was announced. “A father doesn’t do that, a father helps you to get up immediately. It’s Satan who leads us into temptation, that’s his department.”
A second approved change will affect a verse in Gloria, seeing the phrase “Peace on earth to people of good will” change to “Peace on Earth to people beloved by God.”
The amended phrases will appear in a revised third edition of the Italian Missal, a book used for the celebration of Mass in the Catholic Church. The change will affect some one billion Catholics, though The Sun reports that Anglicans or Protestants will not be affected because they use separate texts.
The amended verse was reportedly 16 years in the making, during which time research by experts “worked on improving the text from a theological, pastoral and stylistic point of view.”
Pope Francis had first voiced his support for the change in 2017.
“A father does not lead into temptation, a father helps you to get up immediately,” he said at the time. “It is not a good translation because it speaks of a God who induces temptation. The one who leads you into temptation is Satan. That’s Satan’s role.”
He went on to point out that others had chosen to modify the prayer.
“The French have modified the prayer to ‘do not let me fall into temptation,’ because it is me who falls, not the Lord who tempts me to then see how I fall,” he said.
Although the change has been approved, it has been met with some backlash, and Albert Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, told the Seattle Times that it is “deeply problematic.”
