From Normandie to Lebanon

Through two bronze sliding doors, embossed with medallions and flowers, transatlantic commuters once strolled into the super-imperial banquet room of the luxury liner Normandie. Through these same doors henceforth the congregation of Brooklyn's Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady of Lebanon will pass in to worship.

When Our Lady of Lebanon moved into the old Congregationalist Church of the Pilgrims last December, its priest, Monsignor Mansour Stephen, planned extensive interior redecoration. Hearing that the fire-gutted Normandie's salvaged appurtenances were to be auctioned, he looked them over, decided that they were just the thing for his new church. Last week, with the backing of his parish, Monsignor Stephen turned up at the auction to bid against 100-odd hotel men, restaurateurs, other buyers. In addition to the bronze doors ($1,025), he acquired ten bronze plaques ($975), a bronze railing ($155), a cloisonne enamel bas-relief of a Norman knight ($380), and a bronze statue ($690) entitled "La Paix" (Peace). Slightly remodeled, "La Paix" will be enshrined in the church's square tower.

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