The Place on the Jordan Where Jesus Was Baptized by John: Here John Paul II Made an Improvised Controversial Statement or Did He?
For more than a quarter of a century, a single sentence from Pope John Paul II’s trip to Jordan was considered a symbol of those post-conciliar inter-religious gestures that remain controversial to this day. Now, the passage in question has been altered on the official Vatican website without any notice. "May Saint John Baptist protect Islam" became "May Saint John Baptist protect this land." The change apparently occurred between October 2025 and April 2026 silently, without an erratum, and without any documented explanation.
The statement in question dates back to March 21, 2000. During his pilgrimage to the Holy Land, John Paul II visited Christ's baptismal site on the Jordanian side of the Jordan River. Following the official program, the Pope spoke a few improvised farewell words in English. The transcription published by the Vatican at the time read: "May Saint John Baptist protect Islam and all the people of Jordan."
It was precisely this formulation that was cited countless times over the past decades as evidence of the controversial direction of interreligious dialogue under John Paul II, a statement that, together with other gestures (most notably the 1986 Assisi meeting), fit into a questionable overall picture.
Supporters interpreted it as an expression of special esteem for Islam, while critics saw it as a theological overreach, arguing that John the Baptist, as the forerunner of Christ, could not be invoked to protect a religion that only emerged 600 years later and explicitly rejects the divinity of Jesus Christ.
Did the Severely Ailing Head of the Church Say "This Land" or "Islam"?
As has now become known, the text on the Holy See’s website (Vatican.va) reads differently today. It now states: "May Saint John Baptist protect this land and all the people of Jordan." Research using archived web versions confirms as InfoVaticana reports that the change was made only a few months ago.
An analysis of the original recording of the live broadcast strongly suggests that John Paul II did indeed say "this land" and not "Islam." His distinctive accent appears to have led to a mistranscription even back then, the classic risk of improvised remarks. The context of the address also clearly favors this reading, as the Pope had previously blessed Jordan and its people.
However, this brings another question into focus: How could such a consequential mistranscription remain part of official Vatican documentation for over 25 years?
The error was by no means confined to a single webpage. The day after the ceremony, the Vatican Press Office adopted the exact same wording in its official daily bulletin and confirmed it through its Italian translation. L'Osservatore Romano also published the sentence in its English-language weekly edition and later reprinted it in a bound volume on the papal trip. For decades, the problematic phrasing was thus disseminated by multiple official Vatican outlets. It doesn't get more official than that.
That is precisely why the recent correction carries such weight. Historical documents in official archives are not usually modified silently. Changes are typically flagged, dated, and justified. In this instance, the exact opposite happened: the passage was replaced without the intervention being documented or publicly explained. Today, only internet archives make it possible to prove that the wording was altered.
The timing of the correction attracts additional attention. It falls within the very months when renewed discussions were taking place between Rome and the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) regarding long-disputed issues of the Second Vatican Council, religious freedom, and interreligious dialogue. The controversial Jordan quote has long been a staple of traditionalist critiques of John Paul II’s pontificate.
According to available information, the text passage was not an explicit subject of the official talks. Nevertheless, the temporal overlap remains noteworthy. In the midst of an intense phase of debate over the legacy of John Paul II, one of the most frequently cited examples quietly vanished from the official archive.
Regardless of whether the original transcription was truly due to a hearing error, the incident raises fundamental questions. On one hand, an erroneous sentence was able to retain the status of official papal phrasing for decades, deeply shaping ecclesiastical debate. On the other hand, the same error was finally corrected without transparently documenting the edit.
Who authorized the change after such a long time? What were the motives? Did the responsible Vatican offices verify beyond doubt that John Paul II never made the controversial statement? The opposite scenario would be even more severe. Why is the correction not being communicated publicly? It touches upon a central and highly contentious point of post-conciliar church politics.
The incident brings to mind the numerous spontaneous remarks under Pope Francis, particularly those made to Eugenio Scalfari, the doyen of left-wing Italian journalism and Freemason. Back then, the Vatican was promptly asked for statements to confirm or deny the claims reported by Scalfari. In most cases, nothing of the sort happened—the surest way to manufacture confusion.
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Wikicommons
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG
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