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For the position of Leo Dehon within the society of St Quentin the foundation of a Catholic college in 1877 was not without consequences:

"Since the republicans had gained a majority in the Chamber of Deputies in 1876 elections, they were formulating a political policy which was attempting to isolate the Church from public life and social institutions. Gambetta who was particularly influential, proclaimed on May 4,1877, to the Assembly ‘clericalism is our enemy’. The first success of this policy was the passing of the 1880 laws which excluded some three hundred religious congregations from teaching.
Because Dehon decided to found a college ... he found himself right in the middle of this conflict over education which alienated him from one group of the people in St. Quentin. St. Joseph’s youth work which was basically dealing with social matters, was generally well received and Dehon was respected and praised for it. But with the foundation of St. John’s College he put himself on the wrong side in the eyes of the republicans among the laity." (Yves Ledure, A Short Life of Leo Dehon, p. 86)

Dehon himself was concerned about changing public opinion:
"Until then, everyone in Saint-Quentin and in the diocese was in favour of me. I was loved in this city. From now on I was going to meet a persistent hostility. Half of the city was in a certain way attached to the public college. I couldn’t be anymore persona grata to all these people. The lay boarding schools of the city had their clients, too - I became for them a competitor.
In Laon, they didn’t forgive for collecting the rests ???? of the institution Notre Dame. They were wrong, but they accused me of being at the origin of its closure. In Chauny also and Vervins, too, I encountered much concurrence. I was very sensitive to all this. I didn’t have the temperament of a fighter. By nature I was inclined to be kind to everyone and I wanted them to treat me the same." (NHV XIII/22s)

The foundation of St. John’s College stood against the school politics of the government and thus became part of the battle between the Church and the republicans in the Chamber of Deputies. Among Catholics, too, the foundation of the college for some constituted an inappropriate act in difficult times, for others an unwelcome concurrence for other Catholic institutions as in Vervins and Chauny.