Using a catalog to brows images?

At the moment I use C1 Pro to develop my raw files and then I add the developed files to my "Photos" directory which is getting quite large.

I am using Aperture to view all of my photos but I would like to be able to use C1 for everything, can I use a catalog for this, I mean, can I use a C1 catalog to view my photo library and still do my converting using sessions, or is a catalog not meant to be used like this?

If I can view my photo collection using a catalog can I, if needed, still edit the already processed files in it, by this I mean things like cropping and deleting images.

Sorry if this is a silly question, but I have never used a catalog before 😄

Dave...