MALEDIZIONE. - Cursing is the offspring of anger and consists in invoking evil upon others.
Being formally a sentence, cursing may also be conditional; this explains the ritual concluding formulas of covenants in antiquity, examples of which are also found in the Bible (Lev. 26, 14-45; Deut. 11, 26-29). Cursing directed against beings insofar as they are the work of God falls within the category of blasphemy; according to s. Alfonso, this seldom occurs. If, on the other hand, the curse is directed at creatures considered in themselves, it appears as an irrational act because it is futile and therefore unlawful (Sum. Theol., 2a-2ae, q. 76, aa. 2-6); its psychological explanation is found in the general predominance of passion (anger, hatred...), which prevents the control of the higher faculties. To curse beings, however, under the specific aspect of their harmfulness (an occasion of sin or of some other grave misfortune) entails no moral disorder, because it is not irrational to oppose, even affectively, that which is evil, or is its cause or occasion. From this standpoint certain exorcisms used by the Church in its Rituale are to be considered (v. Baptism).
A special form of cursing, which had great historical importance in the life of the Jewish people, CHEREM (v.), which derives from the root lpm and denotes that which is cursed by God and condemned to extermination, whether person or thing, in honour of God.