hanji this will work..
Actually u r confusing the "catalog" word in the command with recovery catalog.
U r probably thinking that the when we r cataloging an OS backed datafile or archivelog, then we must have recovery catalog. But this is not the case. When we catalog a datafile or archivelog, then such information is first stored in controlfile and is then propagated to recovery catalog.

I suppose that I have got ur question rightly.