Apologetic about church suggesting witchcraft (7)
I believe the answer is:
sorcery
'witchcraft' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'apologetic about church' is the wordplay.
'apologetic' becomes 'sorry' (I've seen this before).
'about' indicates putting letters inside.
'church' becomes 'ce' (abbreviation for Church of England).
'sorry' going around 'ce' is 'SORCERY'.
'suggesting' is the link.
(Other definitions for sorcery that I've seen before include "Black magic" , "Trickery" , "practice being aligned with the devil?" , "Magic; witchcraft" , "devilish practices" .)