What was going on when I was born?

Archibishop John R. Roach, president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, urged the bishops today to spearhead a campaign for social justice that advocated a halt to the arms race, a ban on abortion and more aid for the poor. The call is expected to signal a new round of activisim on a number of issues Excerpts from speech, page B4. by the leaders of the nation's 50 million Roman Catholics. In his address to the annual meeting of the bishops, Archibshop Roach outlined a three-point agenda that has emerged among members of the hierarchy in recent months, partly as a result of the Reagan Administration's budget cuts in social programs and growing opposition in the church to nuclear arms.

American Airlines today announced a second cost-cutting move in as many weeks, this time asking its 35,000 employees to accept a 5 percent pay cut for the first three months of 1982, and a wage freeze for the rest of that year. The airline had announced last week that an unspecified number of employees would be laid off or furloughed in December. That is in addition to the 750 workers and 200 pilots laid off by American after the air controllers' strike began in August.

President Reagan said today that he was willing to meet Congress halfway in a dispute over how much spending would be allowed in a stopgap money bill needed to keep the Government operating beyond midnight Friday. At the same time, Republican Senators said, White House aides told Republican leaders in Congress that Mr. Reagan was likely to veto the bill unless significant reductions were made, On Capitol Hill, Republicans and Democrats said that the veto threat was a matter of style as well as substance. Mr. Reagan was genuinely seeking the spending reductions, they said, but with the veto threat he was also seeking to demonstrate continued mastery over Congress on the budget. Round-the-Clock Work Possible The struggle between the White House and Congress is being played against the background of the Friday deadline for continuing the stopgap funds for the Government. Round-the-clock sessions of Congress are threatened if there is a stalemate, and a Governmentwide fiscal crisis looms if the deadline is missed.

President Reagan's Middle East envoy plans to return to that region shortly after Thanksgiving to try to strengthen the four-month old cease-fire in Lebanon and to ease Israeli concerns about American policies, Administration officials said today. The mission by Philip C. Habib, his first to the area since late July, is coming at a time of renewed tensions in Lebanon and Israel and apprehension in Washington that the truce might fall apart. Israel has threatened a pre-emptive strike against Palestine Liberation Organization forces in Lebanon, charging that the P.L.O. has increased its artillery power in southern Lebanon during the cease-fire, endangering residents of northern Israel. The formal announcement of Mr. Habib's departure is to be made in a few days and is expected to be reassuring to the Israelis, who have publicly complained in recent weeks about the seeming delay in Mr. Habib's return to the region. The trip is tentatively set for Nov. 27 or 28.

Frank J. Macchiarola, the city's Schools Chancellor, announced yesterday that he would become acting interim principal of Jamaica High School in Queens to get a first-hand view of day-to-day life in the school system. Mr. Macchiarola will continue to hold the title of Chancellor, but Richard F. Halverson, the deputy chancellor, will preside over the operations of the school system for a period of time that Mr. Macchiarola said is undetermined. Normally, an acting principal is appointed until a permanent replacement is found. Arlene Zimny, the principal of Jamaica High, has just been promoted to deputy director of the Division of Curriculum and Instruction. Mr. Macchiarola, who will begin reporting to the school daily on Dec. 2, said he did not expect to remain in the post until June.

Corporations flooded the bond market with more than $1 billion of new issues yesterday, but investor demand was strong enough so that the heavy supply caused prices of outstanding issues to decline only slightly. Because of the large volume of new issues, and the 15-point rise in many bond prices since Oct.28, analysts said that it would be normal for the current market rally to pause for a while. ''I would expect some backing-and-filling for a week or two,'' commented Samuel Thorne, senior vice president at Scudder Stevens & Clark. That does not mean the end of the rally, however, since ''investor psychology has changed to a much more constructive viewpoint,'' he added.

Now that two orbital tests have demonstrated that the space shuttle can fly and land as designed, space agency officials are still left with a disturbing problem: They doubt that the shuttle will ever be able to be serviced and returned to space as rapidly as originally hoped. Since the shuttle's round-trip capabilities were a main selling point when the proposal was made to Congress before the Government committed itself to what is now a $10 billion project, the time spent in servicing the shuttle between flights has become as crucial a period of testing as the launchings and landings. Ground Maintenance Time Technicians here at the landing base and at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida are pressing to reduce the time required for ground maintenance. Instead of what was once their goal of a two-week ''turnaround,'' they now say that the best they can hope for in the foreseeable future is a month between flights.

A sports article in some copies yesterday gave an incorrect location for a soccer playoff game scheduled Sunday between Columbia and Long Island University. It is Baker Field.

Brazil takes over town racked by family feud A2 Passions high in Ulster as slain M.P. is buried A3 Chinese acclaim victories of women's volleyball team A5 Union and Government resume negotiations in Poland A7 Study says a tactical nuclear war could not be controlled A11 Government/Politics Way cleared for Capitol debate on B-1 and MX A26 Reagan gets revised proposals on school lunches A29 Chicago Mayor wins on new ward lines A32 Imperiale admits he ran G.O.P. ballot-security force in Newark B2 Cable television in four boroughs takes another step B3 Washington Talk Briefing A24 Varied policy groups influence U.S. on Latin American issues A24 Rumor on the bugging of Blair House is traced A24 General Around the Nation A14 Tough Florida town fights off developers A14 Judge finds Hinckley's rights were violated A15 St. Bartholomew's Church bows to court order B2 Award-winning geneticist wor- ried about losing privacy B3 Obituaries Herschel Alt, specialist in mental health and child welfare A28 News Analysis John Herbers on civil rights com- mission changes A21 James Barron on cost of Grum- man's fight with LTV D1 Living Section Food Special holiday touch by special people C1 Stuffing the turkey: From basic to esoteric C1 Finding ready-made feasts C1 Celebrating regional cooking of France C3 Fresh chestnuts drop in price C7 Living Metropolitan Diary C2 Kitchen Equipment: Nutmeg graters C2 60-Minute Gourmet: Pork chops with spices C3 Best Buys C9 Personal Health: Dentists C14 Wine Talk: American wines C23 Discoveries: Low-slung leather C24 Black designers and students honored C24 Arts/Entertainment "The First," a musical about Jackie Robinson, opens C25 Beth Soll and Dancers present her "Pageant" C25 Tennstedt conducts the Philadel- phia in "Eroica" C25 Khmer Classical Dancers, refu- gees, perform at museum C26 CBS presses affiliates to accept one-hour newscast C28 Film "Jane Austen in Manhat- tan" opens at the Art C28 Joffrey Ballet offers "Moves" and "Momentum" C29 The Talking Heads are together again C29 Two books on clothes and fashion are reviewed C32 Sports Boston College coach testifies at point-shaving trial B8 Nordiques rout Islanders, 7-2 B9 Kings subdue Knicks, 124-110 B9 Yanks send Rodriguez to Toronto B9 Holly stirs new interest in Prince- ton football B9 Red Smith on season for giving B10 Phils' Schmidt named most valu- able player for 2d straight year B10 Features/Notes Notes on People B4 Sports People B8 Editorials/Letters/Op-Ed Editorials A30 Nick-Pack strikes home The top officials need a raise New hope for the ghost hospital Letters A30 James Reston: Reagan and Brezhnev A31 Russell Baker: with a cast of thousands A31 Abba Eban: examining the Saudi proposal A31 Andrew J. Cherlin: the 50's family and today's A31

Even for Brazil, where national leaders like to think big, the project now getting under way at this Amazon site is immense. The country that in the last 25 years built a new capital in the wilderness, created an extensive road system and helped constuct the world's largest hydroelectric plant hopes to extract the huge deposits of iron, manganese, nickel, copper, bauxite and gold that lie beneath this hilly jungle region. Brazil counts on seeing a minimum of $61 billion invested for this purpose over the next decade. That amount equals the nation's foreign debt, which is the largest in the developing world.

An article on the Style page Satur- day, about contracts signed by couples before they marry or live together, in- correctly described New Jersey law. The state does not have a community- property law but since 1971 has had an equitable-distribution statute.

President Reagan has known since mid-September that his national security adviser, Richard V. Allen, received a $1,000 cash payment from a Japanese journalist, a White House spokesman said today. The spokesman, David R. Gergen, had said previously that it was not until last Friday that the President learned both about the payment, made after a Japanese magazine interviewed Nancy Reagan, and about a Justice Department investigation into the matter. Just before his disclosure today at a regular news briefing, Mr. Gergen had said that there would be a strict policy of no comment while the Justice Department's investigation continued. ''I do want to correct the record on one point,'' Mr. Gergen added, and revealed then that not even he, as the White House Director of Communications, had known about the President's knowledge when he briefed reporters on Friday. ''I subsequently learned that he knew of the fact that the matter had been referred to the Justice Department prior to that time,'' Mr. Gergen said. ''He learned this at approximately the time the money was discovered and the matter was referred to the Justice Department.''