Less spiritual altarpieces mutilated, leading to tears (9)
I believe the answer is:
lacerates
'tears' is the definition.
(lacerating is a kind of tearing)
'less spiritual altarpieces mutilated' is the wordplay.
'less' suggests deleting specific letters.
'spiritual' becomes 'pi' (old-fashioned term for 'pious').
'mutilated' indicates anagramming the letters.
'altarpieces' with 'pi' removed is 'altareces'.
'altareces' with letters rearranged gives 'LACERATES'.
'leading to' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for lacerates that I've seen before include "Tear" , "Cuts (flesh) roughly" .)