THE right of the board at US food and tobacco group RJR Nabisco to devise and implement business strategy is under threat from an unlikely adversary, a missionary order of priests holding a paltry 980 shares. The priests, members of the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers, have added their moral weight to a more powerful ginger group holding 13 million shares which is pressing Nabisco to sell off its tobacco division and move in new management to replace the existing board.

A resolution to this effect, due to be presented at the group's annual meeting in April, has been given extra bite by a unique decision this week from the US Securities and Exchange Commission which ruled that, for the priests' action to succeed, only a majority of the shares actually voted at the meeting will be required.

Nabisco had asked the SEC to block both resolutions, talking about a conspiracy to take over the whole company. Taking on the Catholic Church in public may prove more problematic.