A Catholic university in Ohio is not happy Facebook rejected an ad depicting the crucifixion of Jesus saying the image of Christ hung to the cross was 'shocking and violent'.

Franciscan University, in Steubenville, said it had recently posted several ads on Facebook to promote its online theology program but one ad was rejected by the social networking site because its content was 'shocking, sensational, and excessively violent'.

The ad in question, according to the school, was Jesus nailed to the San Damiano Cross.

Franciscan University said their ad depicting the crucifixion of Jesus was rejected by Facebook

The ad was image of Jesus Christ nailed to the San Damiano Cross. Facebook said the ad was 'shocking, sensational and excessively violent'

'This is what the monitors at Facebook consider excessively violent, sensational, and shocking, the school responded in a blog post titled 'He was rejected'.

'And indeed the Crucifixion of Christ was all of those things. It was the most sensational action in history: man executed his God. It was shocking, yes: God designed to take on flesh and was 'obedient unto death,' even death on a cross'. And it was certainly excessively violent: a man scourged to within an inch of life, nailed to a cross and left to die, all the hate of all the sin in the world poured out its wrath upon its humanity.'

Franciscan University went on to say that it wasn't the nails that kept Jesus on the cross but his love for mankind.

'He could have descended from the cross at any moment. No, it was love that kept him there. Love for you and for me, that we might not be eternally condemned for our sins but might have life eternal with him and his Father in heaven,' the school wrote.

The Catholic university, located in Ohio, posted the ad to promote its online theology program

A Facebook spokesperson told the Daily Mail that it was an error and the ad has now been approved.

'Our team processes millions of ads each week, and sometimes we make mistakes. This image does not violate our ad policies. We apologize for the error and have already let the advertiser know we approved their ad,' the spokesperson said.

Last month, a woman who runs a religious blog complained that Facebook was censoring her ads depicting Jesus being crucified.

Sylvia, who runs the blog Passion of the Christ, said in a blog post that she received messages from the site saying her religious ads were either violating 'advertising policies' or were too violent.

'Facebook is calling photos of the Passion of Christ violent, and indeed the crucifixion of Our Lord Jesus was violent. But it is deeply troubling to me that a Christian advertiser I am being limited in what images I can share,' she wrote.