An image of the San Damiano Cross, showing Jesus in glory, "reigning from his cruciform throne," has been rejected by Facebook because of its "shocking content."
"This is what the monitors at Facebook consider excessively violent, sensational, and shocking,"Â said a statement from Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio.
The university said it had posted a series of ads to Facebook to promote an online degree program for theology, catechetics and evangelization.
Explained Facebook, "Your image, video thumbnail or video can't contain shocking, sensational, or excessively violent content."
The university replied in a statement: "And indeed, the Crucifixion of Christ was all of these things. It was the most sensational action in history: man executed his God. It was shocking, yes: God deigned to take on flesh and was 'obedient unto death, even death of a cross.'
"And it was certainly excessively violent: a man scourged to within an inch of his life, nailed naked to a cross and left to die, all the hate of all the sin in the world poured out its wrath upon his humanity."
The image shows a fair-skinned Jesus nailed to a cross but virtually no gore.
The slogan with the image is "We teach those who teach the faith."
The Franciscan statement about the dispute noted "it was not the nails that held Jesus to the cross: he was God, he could have descended from the Cross at any moment. No, it was love that kept him there."
Facebook did not respond to WND's request for comment.