Italian coming into church gives quote (4)
I believe the answer is:
cite
'quote' is the definition.
(I know that quote is a more specific form of cite)
'italian coming into church' is the wordplay.
'italian' becomes 'it' (abbreviation for Italian).
'coming into' indicates putting letters inside.
'church' becomes 'ce' (abbreviation for Church of England).
'it' placed into 'ce' is 'CITE'.
'gives' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for cite that I've seen before include "Mention as example or quote" , "Quote or refer to" , "Quote (a reference)" , "Quote (an author)" , "Quote (eg, a book)" .)