MINNEAPOLIS — A woman who says she was sexually abused by a Lutheran youth minister when she was a girl has filed a lawsuit in Hennepin County District Court.

The 52-year-old woman says she was abused for several years in the 1970s by the youth minister at Zion Lutheran Church in Hopkins. The minister is now deceased.

The woman says she was 12 when the abuse began and happened at the church, on youth retreats and other settings. The lawsuit says the church had knowledge of the abuse but failed to act.

Minneapolis attorney Patrick Noaker is part of the legal team representing the woman. Noaker says a small fraction of women take advantage of laws that allow victims of child sexual abuse to seek legal remedy in decades-old cases.