May 5, 1988

LEAD: Poland's Roman Catholic bishops, apparently acting with the approval of the Polish authorities, authorized five Catholic laymen today to act as mediators to break the deadlock in labor conflicts now in their second week.

LEAD: When Florence Frucher told Governor Cuomo that her daughter was debating whether to attend Harvard or Williams next fall, the Governor offered this fatherly advice: ''Nobody turns down Harvard.''

LEAD: New York City officials stunned Chase Manhattan Bank, Citibank and Chemical Bank yesterday by announcing that the three banks would no longer belong to the elite group of managing underwriters for the more than $1 billion of bonds the city sells each year.

LEAD: The LTV Corporation today outlined a broad proposal for ending its bankruptcy, the second largest in the nation's history, but its insistence that more than $2 billion in pension liabilities be terminated was immediately challenged by the Government agency that insures corporate pensions.

LEAD: In the broadest statement in months of his views on the economy, Alan Greenspan, Federal Reserve Board chairman, said that major countries do not know the optimum exchange rate of the dollar and that unemployment could fall further without causing higher inflation and inducing the Fed to raise interest rates.