Updated

The Vatican's sex-crimes expert is changing plans and will fly to New York to take in-person testimony from a Chilean sex-abuse victim whose pleas to be heard by Pope Francis were previously ignored.

The switch from a planned Skype interview came after The Associated Press reported that Francis received a letter in 2015 from Juan Carlos Cruz, a victim of Chile's most notorious pedophile priest. Cruz told the pope that one of the priest's proteges, Bishop Juan Barros, was present for his abuse and did nothing. Barros denied any wrongdoing.

The Vatican tapped Archbishop Charles Scicluna to go to Chile to take testimony about Barros last week. Originally, he was to interview Cruz via Skype.

Cruz told the AP that Scicluna has asked Tuesday to do the interview in person.