Ministers spared criminal (6)
I believe the answer is:
padres
'ministers' is the definition.
(padre is a type of church minister)
'spared criminal' is the wordplay.
'criminal' indicates anagramming the letters.
'spared' with letters rearranged gives 'PADRES'.
(Other definitions for padres that I've seen before include "Fathers" , "Spared by clerics" , "Spared as military clergy" , "Spread (anag.)" , "Ministers" .)