October 6, 1984

Pope John Paul II issued one of his strongest condemnations of organized crime today, urging listeners in a southern Italian town to break ''the tragic chain of vendettas'' and end organized crime's code of silence. The Pope specifically used organized crime's traditional word ''omert a'' in referring to the code of silence. Speaking in the Calabrian coastal village of Paola, the Pope told a crowd ''to have the courage to wipe out omert a, which binds so many people in a type of squalid complicity dictated by fear.''

A State Supreme Court justice yesterday dismissed a manslaughter indictment against three transit police officers charged with the beating death of Michael Stewart, a 25-year-old Brooklyn artist. The dismissal was caused by a grand juror whose misconduct had ''permeated the entire presentation of this case,'' said the justice, George F. Roberts of Manhattan. Justice Roberts concluded that the panelist tainted the jury by conducting his own investigation of the death, which black activists have said resulted from a racially motivated beating. Mr. Stewart was black. The Manhattan District Attorney's office said it would present the case, one of the most contentious police- brutality cases in the city's history, to a new grand jury next week. If the officers are indicted again, the case probably would not go to trial until at least next summer, prosecutors said.

The stubbornly strong dollar has created a new watchword for the industrial Middle West. In the export-producing plants, the credo has become: Automate or emigrate. For more than a year, the Caterpillar Tractor Company has been hanging on, waiting for the dollar to break and begin its slide. In the meantime, Caterpillar has allowed its profit margins on exports to become razor thin and, what may be worse, it has swallowed losses in an effort to maintain its overseas market share. Its thinking has been that once the dollar dropped and Caterpillar products became relatively cheaper overseas, export sales - and margins - would swell.

When Paul Simien returned home to Port Arthur 10 years ago after a stint in the Air Force, he passed up college for a job paying $12.41 an hour filling cans with motor oil at the big Texaco refinery here. He fully expected to work for Texaco Inc. until he retired. A year ago, with petroleum demand slumping, Texaco laid off Mr. Simien, probably for good. Since then he has been unable to find steady work and, at the age of 35, he rues the day he spurned college. ''You're nothing unless you've got a degree today,'' he said. ''Getting hired at Texaco was one of the worst things that ever happened to me.'' Mr. Simien's plight parallels what has happened to this region of southeast Texas, the Golden Triangle, the heart of the Gulf Coast's refining and petrochemical industry and the place where Texas's oil wealth began. It was in nearby Beaumont that a gusher was struck at the great Spindletop Field in 1901, ushering in Texas' oil era.

House and Senate conferees bogged down today in a dispute over aid to Nicaraguan rebels and gave up efforts to compromise on a spending bill until Tuesday. The money bill provides nearly $500 billion to finance most Federal Government operations for the fiscal year 1985, which began Monday. The deadlock upset Congressional plans to adjourn today for the year. House conferees insisted on a provision of the House bill that would cut off aid to rebels fighting the Sandinista Government of Nicaragua. But Senator Ted Stevens, Republican of Alaska, evidently reflecting the views of the Administration, adamantly opposed the end of aid to the rebels, whom he has praised as ''freedom fighters.''