To do great things, one needs to be comfortable with the uncomfortable.  Having said that, I do not like to always subscribe to such quotable lines.  It is not for a lack of belief in them.  Many times have I used the Catholic version of that opening sentence from Pope Benedict XVI, “The world offers you comfort.  But you were not made for comfort.  You were made for greatness.”  The reason I sometimes shy from such pithy statements is because I know God is capable of anything, and anything is possible when you place your trust in Him.  When I read about the lives of the saints, I get the impression that the Holy Spirit has endowed them with preternatural abilities to endure anything.  Of course, I am aware that this is a false narrative.  The saints relied on God not so much for extraordinary abilities to cope with difficult moments, although He can and did do that for some, but because He desires us in every state.  Take the Young Woman and the Sea (2024), a film based on the first woman to ever swim across the English Channel, Gertrude “Trudy” Ederle (Daisy Ridley).  With apologies for spoiling the ending, but had she failed in her goal of making the crossing, God would have loved her just as much, and He wants us to do the same for Him.  As you read what follows, hopefully you will see where God does that for her even if the film does not talk about Faith.

In the Young Woman and the Sea, the young woman is Trudy and the Sea is the English Channel.  When staring at it on a beach in France as she does in the opening shot, one has to have faith that the right decision is being made.  How she gets to this point is the subject of much of the rest of the film.  As a nine-year-old (Olive Abercrombie), she contracts measles, though this is not the only news of the day.  From her German immigrant community in Manhattan, she can see a burning ferry on the Hudson.  When she asks her mother, Gertrude Anna Ederle (Jeanette Hain), why so many died in the accident, mom blames it on people, many of whom were women, being unable to swim.  This is little comfort for the girl as the Ederle’s doctor tells them she will not last through the night.  Hence, they are all amazed when she comes down in the morning apparently healthy and wanting to eat.  Despite Trudy’s newfound health, her parents continue to take it easy on her, primarily her father, Henry Ederle (Kim Bodnia).  It is Trudy’s insistence that she learn to swim, aided by her incessant ukelele playing, that finally gets her Henry to relent.  She is mesmerized by the sport, not only because of the ferry tragedy, but because by swimming around a pier at Coney Island, one is awarded a free hotdog.  As Trudy and her older sister, Margaret “Meg” Ederle (Tilda Cobham-Hervey) grow up, they cannot be kept out of the water to the point where their mother enrolls them in a swimming class.  Henry thinks this is ridiculous, particularly the $2 a week cost, but Gertrude is insistent.  She finds Charlotte Epstein (Sian Clifford), founder of the New York chapter of the Women’s Swimming Association (WSA).  Charlotte is forming a women’s swim team and sees potential in Meg.  Trudy is only allowed to stick around because part of the deal for them to be able to use the pool is that they maintain the coal levels in the nearby broiler, and she is given the duty.  Eventually, she gets her chance in the water.  It is slow going at first, literally, but as she perfects the front crawl (or freestyle) stroke, she begins beating all her competitors.  Not long thereafter, she is setting world records.  Henry remains obstinate that such behavior is not ladylike, forcing his youngest daughter to dodge marriage proposals.  She does this with Meg’s help.  However, after a disappointing trip to the 1924 Paris Olympics, Trudy comes home to the surprise announcement that Meg is engaged to someone other than her first love.  Upon protesting Meg’s betrothal, the older sister echoes what much of the world has been telling Trudy of late: that women need to know their place.  What changes Trudy’s mind is a group of little girls recognizing her outside her father’s butcher shop, saying that they want to grow up to be like her.  With that, and having seen newsreel footage of people swimming the English Channel, she informs her surprised family that she is going to attempt the crossing.  Such an endeavor is one that needs sponsorship, and her and Charlotte approach James Sullivan (Glenn Fleshler).  He had been the one to put Trudy on the 1924 Olympic team, but his views on woman are arcane.  To prove her seriousness, he requests that she swim from New York to where he will be having dinner in New Jersey in four hours.  Trudy does it in three.  However, because he does not want to give women their due, he hires former Olympic swimming coach, Scotsman Jabez Wolfe (Christopher Eccleston).  Jabez shares James’ views on the fairer sex, treating Trudy like a child rather than preparing her to swim.  On her first attempt, he sabotages her tea break with a seasickness pill that forces her to stop after nearly eight miles.  Upon returning to France, she is ready to go home until she is buoyed by the arrival of Meg and her father, who has come around to believing in his daughter.  James is all too happy for them to be returning to New York, but he is surprised when, going to her cabin at the end of the cruise, he finds it empty.  This is because she literally jumped ship to train with Bill Burgess (Stephen Graham), who has made the same crossing five times.  Before the world realizes what has happened, she is getting in the water for her second attempt.  Though everyone catches up to what is happening, Bill, Henry, and Meg are with her for the journey, waiting on the beach for her arrival.  When Trudy does eventually go home, it is to a tickertape parade.

What I will try not to do with the rest of what I have to say about Young Woman and the Sea is parade the many departures from historical fact present in the film.  For example, a full year passes between Trudy’s first and second attempts, rather than the couple of days we see.  If you want to get her real story, there is a book on which this movie is based.  When I saw the motion picture, I recalled having read about her elsewhere.  It is noteworthy that it concludes with her being celebrated, which indeed happened.  Yet, a year later there was a similar event for Charles Lindbergh, the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.  In the crowd was Trudy, largely forgotten by the point.  There are many factors that went into her downfall from popularity, though the main one can be gleaned from the film: namely, that she is a woman.  What is on display is a Western culture that said that females were weaker.  It is mostly wrong to say that the Catholic Church has subscribed to such pernicious notions.  Of course, the people running the Church have occasionally, over the years, said things that can be construed as misogyny.  Further, people take the Faith’s stance that women cannot be priests as a negative judgement on women by the hierarchy (or patriarchy, if you like).  These are stereotypes, clearly, but they are more specifically misunderstandings of Catholic doctrine.  From the beginning, the Church has had the position that women are equal to men in dignity, but are different in tangible ways.  The main difference is obvious, that being sexual.  Beyond that, there is nothing a man can do that a woman cannot.  If you need evidence of this, look at the way a convent functions.  The Trappistines are a good order to mention in this light.  Like any other religious order, their main function is prayer.  At the same time, as with their male counterparts, they have to provide for their own living.  The Cistercians of Mount Saint Mary’s Abbey in Wrentham, Massachusetts, have been supporting themselves for decades making chocolate.  It is really good, by the way.  Though her trade was sport, Trudy did the same thing for herself with what God gave her.

God gave Trudy, the Young Woman and the Sea, the ability to swim like no other before her, and some argue since.  The time she made in traversing the English Channel was two hours faster than anyone before her.  Such accomplishments should be admired no matter who does them, and this is why I recommend this film.