I've only read about Catalyst and other MVC perl frameworks, and i've done limited MVC programming in non-perl setups. As has been gently pointed out, MVC frameworks incur a steep learning curve and fair amount of overhead for the conveniences and structure provided.
i don't want to detract you from learning MVC Catalyst, but it may be overkill, as already pointed out.
You can do all the right kind of things with the database if you apply the relational methods as covered in related theory by various authors etc. In other words if you get the design of the program and database correct, there's no necessity to use an MVC framework. In practice this means making sure your database is normalized (3rd normal form) as much as possible, and carry out CRUD (Create Read Update Delete) analysis etc. as per relational theory and guidelines. A lot of programmers i've come across (with or without university degree) don't know these basics, and end up with non-maintainable and buggy programs from conception thru implementation. Some even think that a relational database is merely a different form of a spreadsheet, which it is not.
Even if the project is quite sizeable, additional analysis and design using Data Flow Diagrams properly--for example--you can design and code a well behaved and maintainable data centric application.
of course using MVC Catalyst doesn't mean that you can automatically forget about all the basic relational requisites as mentioned above, and I humbly commend you for undertaking to learn MVC in the first place.