05:06 PM EDT on Thursday, July 15, 2004

A lawsuit filed Thursday in Louisville alleges sexual abuse by a priest and two nuns at a Jefferson County orphanage in the 1950s and 1960s.

The lawsuit was filed in Jefferson County Circuit Court on behalf of six women and a man. Five of the women are biological sisters. They were separated as orphans, but were reunited earlier this year. The lawsuit names as the defendant the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, a Nelson County-based provider of religious education and social services. The Sisters of Charity ran Saint Thomas-Saint Vincent, the orphanage where the alleged abuses occurred.

The plaintiffs now range in age from 61 to 52 years old. They seek a trial and compensatory and punitive damages.

(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)