In this age of global warming and unpredictable tsunamis and all manner of uncertainties financial and spiritual, it makes sense that we should all worry a little about the fate of our souls. As our spiritual guides are fond of reminding us, there is death at the end of this long and winding road and we should all remember to repent and be saved from a fate far worse than any tsunami.
And so it was as if Africa's Catholic bishops had read my mind when they declared the other day: "Many Catholics in high office have fallen woefully short in their performance in office, the synod calls on such people to repent, or quit the public arena and stop causing havoc to the people and giving the Catholic Church a bad name."
Strong stuff from the holy men and the bishops who were meeting in the Vatican to talk about the topics facing the Catholic Church on our great and God-fearing continent.
It is true we are a God-fearing continent - our churches and mosques stretch across the lands, and then there are our fetishes and ancestral spirits, and for those seeking to mine souls Africa is as rich and unexplored in souls as it is in minerals, oil and human resources.
But just who did the bishops mean when they talked of "Catholics in high office... causing havoc to the people"?
Rumour has it that they were talking directly to a Catholic president or two and bemoaning the suffering of the people under their rule.
Now we must not be cynical and suppose that the bishops are shining their holy torches on Africa because that is where their priests are coming from - because in a world increasingly uninterested in repenting there are a 158 million Catholics still genuflecting in Africa, and that is an important number for the Catholic Church's survival.
Earthly woes
Then the bishops also said that our continent was in need of saints - men and women who are more interested in the wellbeing of the people than their swollen foreign bank accounts.
Who could these saints be? What African president would make a good saint? Could we one day have St Robert of Zimbabwe, patron saint of farmers? Or St Eduardo of Luanda, patron saint of oil-drillers?
Or even St Julius of Tanzania who, despite a war with a neighbouring despot in Uganda and a cosy relationship with the godless communists of the east still commands such nostalgic respect? The bishops meeting in the Vatican acknowledged the great Mwalimu (Nyerere) as a fine example of leadership.
Are these the saints we need to get our continent back on the straight and narrow?
Every now and then we get these announcements from spiritual guardians that are really aimed at our political guardians on the African continent, and they will bemoan our wars and our poverty and our disease and the corruption of the rich and the exploitation of the poor and remind us all that while we wait for heaven, our earthly lives are blighted by those who rule us.
So if the message is for the rulers, why does it make us mere mortals feel so miserable? Can we expect that if a president or his ministers enter the confession box some time today, our lives will improve?
I'm too small a person to question the motives of holy men, but whenever I hear these announcements I think of how indebted we are that besides the newspapers and the radio and all manner of media spotlights on all our issues, we can add the periodic announcements of our bishops to the things that remind us of our constant struggle against tyranny.
And we should thank them, just like we should thank them for considering elevating some of our leaders to sainthood.
But while the business of governance can sometimes give Africa a bad name, the business of religion is not so easy to judge.
The bishops will tell us to fight "politicians who betray and sell out their nations, dirty businesspeople who collude with rapacious multinationals, African arms dealers and traffickers who thrive on small arms that cause great havoc on human lives".
And the holy men will also tell us to abandon our condoms and abstain from sins of the flesh so we can conquer the demon of Aids.
Between the holy men and the politicians is surely that position called a rock and a hard place.
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SIC: BBC