A son pleading to his father: “Father do not lead me into temptation.” The father answers: “Son, why do you tell me this? I only want your well-being. I feel offended by your allegation. Did I ever lead you into temptation?”

Christians around the globe recite the Our Father over and over again and I wonder how our Father in Heaven reacts to such allegations and how many times He feels offended.

This is the question I posed in a letter to the Vatican. After a few months, the much hoped-for response from Mgr Gabriele Caccia from the Vatican arrived. He told me that in the new Italian translation of the Sacred Bible, the phrase in question has been replaced by: “e non abbandonarci alla tentazione”. Readers, therefore, may come to their own conclusion and, as I am doing, alter the words “Do not lead us into temptation” to “Do not let us be led into temptation”, or, in Maltese, from “La ddaħħalniex fit-tiġrib” to “La tħalliniex nidħlu fit-tentazzjoni”.

I feel a sense of relief when I say the Our Father the way it should be, the way the Vatican itself altered it. Who knows how much more our Father who is in Heaven is relieved by this alteration?

I passed on a copy of the letter I received from the Vatican to Archbishop Paul Cremona more than a year ago and sent a reminder some time ago. However, nothing has materialised yet.

I think it is fitting that all those who have this prayer at heart get to know what has happened and how the part in question of this prayer has been altered in the new translation of the Italian Sacred Bible.