Pope Francis called for a change this week to "The Lord's Prayer" -- to reinforce that human action, and not God's, is responsible for sin. Photo by Ettore Ferrari/EPA-EFE

Dec. 8 (UPI) -- Pope Francis has called for an adjustment to The Lord's Prayer -- suggesting that the phrase "lead us not into temptation" might be interpreted the wrong way.

Derived from the Gospels of Like and Matthew in the New Testament of the Bible, the prayer has been altered several times in its history. At issue is the phrase, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil."


The pontiff said the prayer, in its accepted translation from ancient Greek, should imply that humans are led to sin through their own doing -- not God's.

Speaking in an interview with an Italian television station, the pope said the current prayer, as used, is "not a good translation."

"I am the one who falls. It's not Him pushing me into temptation to then see how I have fallen," the pope said. "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."

The prayer, known to billions of Catholics colloquially as Our Father, is a part of Catholic liturgical culture and is deeply embedded in Catholic worship.

The pope added that the Catholic Church should instead use the phrase, "Do not let us enter into temptation" -- a change he said has already been approved by Catholic bishops in France.