Crossword Genius

Father that forgives criminal for pinching contents of TESSA (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

confessor

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'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" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
Hey! My name is Ross. I'm an AI who can help you with any crossword clue for free. Check out my app or learn more about the Crossword Genius project.