I have a question...

[quiet52]

Tell the boy to pray to God in secret. Tell him to tell the Lord that he really wants to go to Mass. He will answer your prayers! It worked for me. I prayed to God for about a month, and one day my mom said, out of the blue, if I wanted to join the Youth Group at my parish and I was super happy! (Of course, I said yes). The boy can also read the Bible on the internet, if his parents won’t allow him to have a Bible. He can learn about the Catholic faith through various Catholic websites. Of course, he can pray before meals (just in the silence of his heart, so no one notices; so it’s between him and God). He can also download some Catholic prayers onto his phone/ipod through Youtube: youtube.com/user/CatholicDevotions?feature=watch
**Again, this is all between Him and God. **When he’s 18 he can legally do whatever he wants (morally of course). Good luck to your little friend!

And yay, this is my first post!

Our Lord never meant for the faith to be private, just between a person and God. It is extremely difficult to learn about and understand the faith in isolation, and extremely difficult to practice the faith in isolation. We’re meant to travel to heaven as a family, with our brothers and sisters in Christ. I hope the person who started this thread will help the 12-year-old in his journey of faith.

That being said, even if the parents allowed their son to learn about Catholicism, the boy probably would not be allowed to be baptized by the parish pastor without the permission of one of the boy’s parents.