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A rainbow flag on the altar and happy, blessed couples in love: several same-sex couples were blessed in a Catholic church service in Munich on Sunday.
"Heaven was open," said the visibly moved Pastor Wolfgang Rothe after the somewhat historic service in the Catholic Church of St. Benedict.
He wanted to "set an example".
"My concern is to get that out of the church backyards - to where it belongs: in the middle of church life," said Rothe.
The 48-year-old Christine Waldner and her partner Almut Münster were also touched by the ceremony: "It was very moving."
Catholic priests all over Germany want to offer blessing services for all loving couples under the motto #liebegewinnt - regardless of whether they are gay, lesbian or straight.
It is an orchestrated protest against the recent categorical ban on blessing homosexual couples by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in the Vatican.
Don't be afraid of the consequences
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Around the main day of action on this Monday - one week before the International Day Against Homophobia - there is an online list of church services all over Germany.
There is blessing from Aachen to Zornheim, from Munich via Würzburg, Frankfurt, Cologne and Berlin to Quakenbrück.
The focus is clearly on the north and west.
There are only four officially announced blessing masses in Bavaria - three in Würzburg and the one with Priest Rothe in Munich.
The blessing services are the temporary climax of a wave that the Vatican has triggered among many Catholics in Germany and now also among Catholic priests with its no.
He is not afraid of the consequences, says Priest Rothe: "We are swimming on a wave of sympathy."