The Lord’s prayer is spoken by the majority of the world’s 2.2billion Christians, and is cited by the bible as the way Jesus taught his disciples to pray.
However Pope Francis has argued the Italian – and indeed the English translation – go against the teachings of the church.
In the much-recited prayer, followers of the faith call on God to “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil”.
Speaking to Italian broadcasters, the Pope argued this was incorrect.
He said: “It is not a good translation because it speaks of a God who induces temptation”
He added Christians in France had adapted the prayer to get around the issue.
Pope Francis said: “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”.
Last month the head of the Catholic church admitted that he had –f rom time to time – fallen asleep during prayer.
“When I pray, sometimes I fall asleep,” the 80-year-old pontiff revealed in an interview for the TV2000 channel.
He added: ”Saint Therese did it too,”, in reference to a 19th-century French nun – whose simplicity, he has said, has been a great influence on his life.
The Pontiff went on to share that praying should make Christians feel like children lying in their father’s arms, implying that relaxation is an important part of the process.
The Pope was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, as Jorge Mario Bergoglio and worked as a nightclub bouncer before beginning his seminary studies.
He was ordained a Catholic priest in 1969 and was Argentina’s provincial superior of the Society of Jesus from 1973 to 1979.
He became the Archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998 and was created a Cardinal in 2001 by Pope John Paul II.