The pocket includes the index finger, so catching the ball in the pocket will not help. The only way to avoid your index finger is to catch the ball in your palm and of course this has at least two of the following problems: ball pops out of glove, palm of hand hurts like (....)
@Smitty28 is correct; a new glove (or reconditioned glove) every year is in order. 80+ games a year with 80's or above will wear the padding out very quickly. If he aspires to catch in college get used to the added expense required of a catcher (lots of equipment that wears out quick, smells like (...), and is quite $$$).
The finger hurts not because of being bent (someone stated it was because of poor grip strength--which is incorrect) but rather bruising because it lacks padding.
So the padding has to come from somewhere. Either add some homemade pads, buy a catching inner glove like the PalmGuard, or buy a new glove or recondition your old glove.
The other thing a full-time catcher needs is to have at least TWO gloves. The newest one should be your bullpen glove and the second one, which is the most broken in, should be your game glove. These will then rotate as needed: bullpen glove becomes game glove and former game glove either gets replaced or reconditioned.