Parish priest Father George Harrison welcomed the opposition leader as "our brother" before he gave the floor to Anwar, who vowed the 1,200-strong crowd with his 25-minute speech on various issues.
But it was Anwar's bold and direct approach to answering the questions from the congregation that impressed the crowd.
When he was asked about his stand on the religious issues currently affecting the country and the rights of Bahasa Malaysia-speaking Christians to use the word Allah, Anwar said that even international Muslim scholars thought it was a subject unworthy of debate.
"When I asked an international scholar about it, he asked me what kind of question that was.
"I told him it was Umno's question, so he explained that Muslims recite five times a day: "Praise be to Allah, Lord of Heaven and Earth.
"So, if Allah is Lord for the entire universe, how can there be limitations?" Anwar pointed out.
He also stressed that for Umno, the Allah issue was clearly not about faith.
"If it was, then their stand must be binding on all. But in this case they are saying Sabah and Sarawak can use the word but not in the peninsula," Anwar said to loud cheers.
He then joked that this meant that a person who boarded a flight from Kuching to Kuala Lumpur will say "Insyallah I'm going to KL" when he gets on the flight but when he lands, he will have to say "Alhamdu Lord".
Anwar’s meeting of the Catholics at the Holy Family church hall comes amidst religious tension between Muslims and Christians which was reignited last year when the Court of Appeal had ruled in October that the Catholic weekly Herald could not use the word Allah in its publication.
The church is appealing the decision.
Herald had won a High Court decision in January 2009 that had overturned the Home Ministry's ban on the use of the word Allah in its publication.
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