diff --git a/Modules/FindMPI.cmake b/Modules/FindMPI.cmake
index c48decbb9f..43fdace09b 100644
--- a/Modules/FindMPI.cmake
+++ b/Modules/FindMPI.cmake
@@ -1440,7 +1440,7 @@ foreach(LANG IN ITEMS C CXX Fortran)
   endif()
   if(_MPI_FIND_${LANG})
     if( ${LANG} STREQUAL CXX AND NOT MPICXX IN_LIST MPI_FIND_COMPONENTS )
-      set(MPI_CXX_SKIP_MPICXX FALSE CACHE BOOL "If true, the MPI-2 C++ bindings are disabled using definitions.")
+      option(MPI_CXX_SKIP_MPICXX "If true, the MPI-2 C++ bindings are disabled using definitions." FALSE)
       mark_as_advanced(MPI_CXX_SKIP_MPICXX)
     endif()
     if(NOT (MPI_${LANG}_LIB_NAMES AND (MPI_${LANG}_INCLUDE_PATH OR MPI_${LANG}_INCLUDE_DIRS OR MPI_${LANG}_COMPILER_INCLUDE_DIRS)))