Someone favoured hiding deserter in abandoned parsonage (7,5)
I believe the answer is:
persona grata
'someone favoured hiding' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this definition defines the answer.
'deserter in abandoned parsonage' is the wordplay.
'deserter' becomes 'rat' (both can mean a traitor).
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'abandoned' indicates an anagram (the original order is abandoned).
'parsonage' is an anagram of 'personaga'.
'rat' inserted within 'personaga' is 'PERSONA GRATA'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for persona grata that I've seen is " One who is diplomatically acceptable".)