On the morning of June 16, before the Fourth Summit of Religious Leaders on the occasion of the G8, the religious leaders visited L'Aquila, the capital of the Abruzzo region of central Italy struck by a massive earthquake April 6, and which became the venue of the G8 summit, held July 8-10.

The Italian government enabled the religious leaders to visit the devastated area, and in the square in front of Santa Maria del Suffragio (commonly known as the church of Anime Sante or "Blessed Souls"), they held a prayer service for the area's rapid recovery. After speeches by the archbishop of L'Aquila, Msgr. Giuseppe Molinari; a representative of the Italian government's agency for disaster relief; and a representative of the earthquake victims, Rev. Nichiko Niwano, as president of the Japanese Committee of the World Conference of Religions for Peace, presented a donation of 10,000 euros to the archbishop for the relief of earthquake victims. Then President Niwano and four other religious leaders attending the summit unveiled a memorial to the victims.

The earthquake reportedly killed some 300 people and destroyed about 35,000 people's homes. As of mid-June, the heavily damaged areas were still off-limits to the public, and evacuated residents were living in tents.

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