Padre's conversion treated leniently (6)
I believe the answer is:
spared
'treated leniently' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both to do with communicating as well as being past participle verbs.
Maybe they are linked in a way I don't understand?
'padre's conversion' is the wordplay.
'conversion' is an anagram indicator.
'padres' anagrammed gives 'SPARED'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for spared that I've seen before include "Unharmed" , "Let off by padres" , "did without" , "Was merciful toward, refrained from harming" , "Refrained from hurting, was merciful towards" .)