Father that forgives criminal for pinching contents of TESSA (9)
I believe the answer is:
confessor
'father that forgives' is the definition.
'confessor' can be an answer for 'father' (thesaurus). I am not certain of the remainder of the definition.
'criminal for pinching contents of tessa' is the wordplay.
'criminal' becomes 'con' (short for convict).
'pinching' means one lot of letters goes inside another (taking inside).
'contents of' says to take the centre (the letters on the inside of the word).
The middle of 'tessa' is 'ess'.
'for' going around 'ess' is 'fessor'.
'con'+'fessor'='CONFESSOR'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for confessor that I've seen before include "Edward, for example?" , "Priest who hears admission of faults" , "One who admits to sins" , "Priest who hears sins" , "One admitting sins" .)