By Jack Jenkins  | Think Progress

As politicians in the United States and Europe rekindle the heated debate over how to respond to the surge of people fleeing the Syrian civil war, Pope Francis is sending his own message. This week, the pontiff is celebrating the traditional Christian holiday of Maundy Thursday in a new way: by washing the feet of refugees.

On Thursday, Pope Francis will celebrate Maundy Thursday — sometimes called Holy Thursday — a traditional Christian holiday meant to commemorate Jesus Christ’s “Last Supper” with his disciples. Although the service usually sees the pope washing the feet of 12 inmates at a prison — a reference to Jesus’ 12 disciples, whose feet he washed in the biblical story — the Vatican announced earlier this week that Francis will instead travel to the Center for Asylum Seekers (Centro di Accoglienza per Richiedenti Asilo, or CARA), where he plans to wash the feet of young refugees.

“We can understand the symbolic value intended by Pope Francis’ visit to the CARA in Castelnuovo di Porto and his bending down to wash the feet of refugees,” Archbishop Rino Fisichella said in a statement. “His actions mean to tell us that it is important to pay due attention to the weakest in this historic moment; that we are all called to restore their dignity without resorting to subterfuge. We are urged to look forward to Easter with the eyes of those who make of their faith a life lived in service to those whose faces bear signs of suffering and violence.”

The grace-minded vigil contrasts starkly with rhetoric from American politicians and presidential candidates such as Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who responded to the this week’s horrific terrorist attacks in Brussels, Belgium by renewing his opposition to allowing Muslim Syrian refugees into the United States.

“We need a president who sets aside political correctness. In the wake of Brussels, we don’t need another lecture from Obama on Islamophobia,” Cruz said on Tuesday. “We need a commander-in-chief who does everything necessary to defeat the enemy, and we need to immediately halt the president’s ill-advised plan to bring in tens of thousands of Syrian Muslim refugees.”

It’s unclear whether the 12 refugees in Francis’ service will be Syrian, or whether those that are will be Catholic, Muslim, or otherwise. But the pontiff has consistently voiced support for those attempting to escape the Syrian civil war, irrespective of their faith: Last September, Francis demanded that every Catholic parish in Europe take in a Syrian refugee family, saying those that don’t should be required to pay property taxes because they are not truly “religious.” He has also repeatedly stood up for immigrants in general by condemning anti-immigrant hatred, surprising migrants with free Christmas gifts, and even visiting the U.S.-Mexico border in February to bless undocumented immigrants.

Francis has also frequently used the ritual of foot washing to model the ideal of a more welcoming, inclusive Catholic Church during his papacy. Although the service has traditionally involved the pope washing the feet of 12 men, Francis made waves in 2013 when he washed the feet of women and Muslim prisoners instead. He took similar steps in 2014 and 2015,and the Vatican announced in January that the ceremony is now officially open to women and girls as well as men.

houses were searched in Brussels, Schaerbeek and Jette, the prosecutor said. The police raids were conducted in connection with the Brussels terror attack investigation.

News of the raid came shortly after raids in northwest Paris foiled a planned attack, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said.

The French plot was at the “advanced stage” of preparation and was discovered after a French national — described as being at a “high level” in the plot — was arrested this morning, Cazeneuve said.

There did not appear to be links “at this stage” between the plot foiled in France and the Paris or Brussels attacks, he added, saying the arrest is the result of weeks of investigation and the individual was involved in a “terror network” that planned to strike.

The raids in Argenteuil, about 8 miles outside of the center of Paris, were ongoing and the streets were sealed off.

Investigators are actively seeking a second suspect in the Brussels metro bombing who has been seen on surveillance camera footage inside the subway station with suicide bomber Khalid El-Bakraoui, a Belgian police source told ABC News.

That second suspect, who is unidentified, was spotted on the subway platform at the Maelbeek station with El-Bakraoui, according to police.

El-Bakraoui is thought to be dead after detonating a bomb on the subway train as it was pulling out of the station. The accomplice now being sought has yet to be identified, but police do not believe he died in the Tuesday attack.

In the other attack at the city’s international airport, Khalid El-Bakraoui’s brother, Ibrahim El-Bakraoui, was one of two alleged suicide bombers who led that attack.

Najim Laachraoui and a man wearing a light-colored jacket, who has not yet been publicly identified by police, were with Ibrahim El-Bakraoui at the airport, as seen on a surveillance camera image released by authorities.

Laachraoui is believed to be dead after detonating his suicide bomb, while the unnamed man has been the subject of a manhunt since Tuesday’s attacks, as Belgium lowered its threat level today from the highest level, 4, to 3. Paul Van Tieghem, director of the office that evaluates threats to the nation, said there is no indication that another attack is imminent but the threat is still serious and possible.

The first suspect that is being sought was pictured on the airport surveillance footage. His identity remains unknown, but he stood out in the photo because he was the only one of the three suspects pictured not wearing a black jacket. As a result, he’s been widely referred to as the “man in white.”

There has been some speculation that the “man in white” was a handler or supporter for Laachraoui and El-Bakraoui since he was not wearing a glove on his left hand like they were, which may have been hiding a trigger, and his bomb failed to detonate until after it was secured by law enforcement.

By Barbara Tasch  |  Business Insider

 Two suicide bombers in Tuesday’s attacks at an airport and a metro station in Brussels were brothers who were known to the authorities, according to Belgian federal prosecutor Frederick Van Leeuw. The two have been named as Khalid and Ibrahim El Bakraoui. Ibrahim El Bakraoui was identified in a CCTV image from Brussels’ Zaventem Airport; he is reportedly the man dressed in black in the middle of three suspected attackers.

Van Leeuw said Ibrahim El Bakraoui was responsible for one of two suicide bombings at the airport. The attack killed at least 10 people and left more than 100 wounded.

A second suspect dressed in black in the CCTV image has not yet been identified but is thought to be responsible for the second bombing at the airport.

The Belgian prosecutor said the other brother, Khalid, detonated his bomb in the Brussels metro while part of the train was still in a station. That explosion killed at least 20 people and injured more than 100.

The RTBF reports that Khalid had rented, under an alias, the house that was raided by the police in the Brussels suburb of Forest last week. He had also reportedly rented an apartment in Charleroi that was raided by the police a few months ago and was used to plan the Paris attacks.

The third suspect in the CCTV image, pictured at the airport wearing a white jacket, has not yet been identified. The Belgian prosecutor said the man had dropped a bag full of explosives in the departures hall and then run away. He is actively sought by the police.

“His bag contained the most explosives,”Van Leeuw said. “Shortly after the arrival of the bomb-defusing team, the bag exploded because of the instability of the explosives. No one was injured.”

The man in the white jacket had been identified in news reports as Najim Laachraoui, but the prosecutor’s office did not confirm the man been identified. Laachraoui is being sought by the police in connection with the November attacks in Paris. Reuters reported that Laachraoui’s DNA was found in houses used by the Paris attackers last year and that Laachraoui traveled to Hungary in September with Salah Abdeslam, the prime suspect in the Paris attacks, who was captured last week in Brussels.

The head of the Coordination Unit for Threat Analysis confirmed on Wednesday that Belgium’s terror-threat status would remain at its maximum level.

Van Leeuw also revealed that the police found a note thought to be written by Ibrahim Bakraoui in which he allegedly said he knew the police was looking for him and that he did not want to end up in a cell.

An antiterror raid was carried out on Wednesday in the Anderlecht region of Brussels, and one person was arrested, the BBC reports. The name of the person detained by police has not been released.

Belgium is in three national days of mourning after Tuesday’s attacks, which left at least 31 people dead and about 270 wounded.

Belgian troops man a roadblock near Brussels’ Zaventem airport following Tuesdays’ bomb attacks in Brussels, Belgium, March 23, 2016.

A minute’s silence for the victims was held at noon local time (11 a.m. GMT, 7 a.m. ET) to remember those who were killed. Islamic State, the militant group also known as ISIS, Daesh, or ISIL, claimed responsibility for the attack.

The two explosions in the airport happened in quick succession shortly after 8 a.m. Belgian police officials are presuming that the two men wearing black in the photo of the suspected attackers are dead after detonating suicide devices.

The three men in the photo are thought to have come to the airport with bombs in their suitcases. “They put the suitcases in their trolleys,” Francis Vermeiren, the mayor of Zaventem, said. “The first two bombs exploded. The third one also put his suitcase on a trolley, but he must have panicked — the bomb did not explode.”

According to the Belgian news site VRT, the suspects tried to fit five suitcases in the taxi but had to leave two behind because they did not fit in the car.

The Belgian police have located the taxi driver who drove the three suspects to the airport, Van Leeuw said.

He gave the police an address in the Schaerbeek area of Brussels where he picked up the men, according to Van Leeuw, who said authorities found an ISIS flag there along with another explosive device, which was filled with nails and chemicals.

“In that apartment, we found all the elements to make bombs, including 15 kilos of TATP, 150 litres of acetone, hydrogen peroxide, as well as a lot of nails screws and nails,” Van Leeuw said.

The police continued operations throughout the night and led numerous raids near the train station in Schaerbeek.

The prosecutor’s office confirmed that numerous raids were taking place throughout Brussels and across Belgium. On Wednesday morning the prosecutors had not yet confirmed whether any raids were successful but said many witnesses were still being questioned, the RTBF reports.

A minute of silence is observed for victims following Tuesday’s bomb attacks in Brussels, Belgium, March 23, 2016. Front row L-R: French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, King Philippe of Belgium, EU Commissionm President Jean-Claude Juncker, Belgian Queen Mathilde and Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel. REUTERS/Francois LenoirREUTERS/Francois Lenoir

A minute of silence was observed Wednesday for victims of Tuesday’s bomb attacks in Brussels. Front row, from left: French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, King Philippe of Belgium, EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, Belgian Queen Mathilde and Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel.

The attacks came days after Abdeslam, the leading suspect in the Paris attacks, was arrested in Brussels, the de facto capital of the European Union.

Belgian officials have long been aware of the existence of an ISIS-linked terrorist cell in Brussels, believed to be centered in the district of Molenbeek.

Belgium’s interior minister, Jan Jambon, has called Molenbeek “the capital of political Islam in continental Europe,” and several suspects have been arrested there in connection with the Paris attacks, which killed 130 people.

The Belgian football association announced on Wednesday it was cancelling next Tuesday’s international friendly game against Portugal in Brussels over security fears after the attack. “The Red Devils match against Portugal, scheduled for Tuesday evening at the King Baudouin Stadium, will not take place,” it said on its website.

By Philip Blenkinsop and Francesco Guarascio

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Islamic State claimed responsibility for suicide bomb attacks on Brussels airport and a rush-hour metro train in the Belgian capital on Tuesday which killed at least 30 people, with police hunting a suspect who fled the air terminal.

Police issued a wanted notice for a young man in a hat who was caught on CCTV pushing a laden luggage trolley at Zaventem airport alongside two others who, investigators said, had later blown themselves up in the terminal, killing at least 10 people.

Officials said 20 died on the metro train close to European Union institutions. It was unclear still what caused the blast but a news agency linked to Islamic State said that too was a suicide attack.

The coordinated assault triggered security alerts across Europe and drew global expressions of support, four days after Brussels police had captured the prime surviving suspect in Islamic State’s attacks on Paris last November.

Belgian authorities were still checking whether the attacks were linked to the arrest of Salah Abdeslam, according to Federal Prosecutor Frederic Van Leeuw, although U.S. officials said the level of organization involved suggested they had previously been in preparation.

Explosives and an Islamic flag were found after a flat was raided a week ago where a fresh fingerprint of Abdeslam’s had put police on his trail. It was not clear if Abdeslam had been involved at that stage in the airport attack plan. A bomb and an Islamic State flag were also found later on Tuesday in a flat in Brussels.

“A photograph of three male suspects was taken at Zaventem. Two of them seem to have committed suicide attacks. The third, wearing a light-colored jacket and a hat, is actively being sought,” Van Leeuw told a news conference.

A government official said the third suspect had been seen running away from the airport building. Local media said police had found an undetonated suicide vest in the area.

Police issued a wanted notice on Monday, after questioning of Abdeslam, identifying 25-year-old Najim Laachraoui as linked to the Paris attacks. The poor quality of the images left open whether he might be the person caught on the airport cameras.

A witness said he heard shouts in Arabic and shots shortly before two blasts struck in a packed airport departure lounge at the airport.

Belgian media published the security camera picture of three young men pushing laden luggage trolleys. Police later issued the same photograph, showing only one of the three.

“If you recognize this individual or if you have information on this attack, please contact the investigators,” the notice read. “Discretion assured.”

Police operations were under way at several points in the city but a lockdown imposed immediately after the attacks was eased and commuters and students headed home as public transport partially reopened.

Islamic State issued a statement claiming responsibility: “We promise the crusader alliance against the Islamic State that they will have black days in return for their aggression against the Islamic State,” the jihadist group said.

Belgium, home to the European Union and the headquarters of the NATO military alliance, has sent warplanes to take part in operations against Islamic State in the Middle East.

Austrian Horst Pilger, who was awaiting a flight with his family when the attackers struck, said his children had thought fireworks were going off, but he instantly knew an assault was underway.

“My wife and I both thought ‘bomb’. We looked into each other’s eyes,” he told Reuters. “Five or 10 seconds later there was a major, major, major blast in close vicinity. It was massive.”

Pilger, who works at the European Commission, said the whole ceiling collapsed and smoke flooded the building.

Security services found and destroyed a third bomb after two blasts at the airport killed at least 10 people and injured around 100, the provincial governor of Brabant Flanders said. Belgian media gave death tolls as high as 14 at the airport.

The metro station blast killed a further 20 people and injured roughly 130, according to a provisional toll from the national crisis response center.

“BLACK MOMENT”

U.S. President Barack Obama led calls of support to Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel after Brussels had gone into a state of virtual lock-down.

“We must be together regardless of nationality or race or faith in fighting against the scourge of terrorism,” Obama told a news conference in Cuba. “We can and we will defeat those who threaten the safety and security of people all around the world.”

Michel spoke at a Brussels news conference of a “black moment” for his country. “What we had feared has come to pass.”

The blasts occurred after the arrest in Brussels of a suspected participant the Paris attacks that killed 130 people. Belgian police and combat troops on the streets had been on alert for reprisal but the attacks took place in crowded areas where people and bags are not searched.

All public transport in Brussels was initially shut down, as it was in London during 2005 Islamist militant attacks there that killed 52. Authorities appealed to citizens not to use overloaded telephone networks, extra troops were sent into the city and the Belgian Crisis Centre, clearly wary of a further incident, appealed to the population: “Stay where you are”.

Brussels airport will remain closed on Wednesday, its chief executive Arnaud Feist told reporters.

Public broadcaster VRT said police had found a Kalashnikov assault rifle next to the body of an attacker at the airport. Such weapons have become a trademark of Islamic State-inspired attacks in Europe, notably in Belgium and France, including on Nov. 13 in Paris.

Alphonse Youla, 40, who works at the airport, told Reuters he heard a man shouting out in Arabic before the first explosion. “Then the glass ceiling of the airport collapsed.”

“I helped carry out five people dead, their legs destroyed,” he said, his hands covered in blood.

Others said they also heard shooting before the blasts. A witness said the blasts occurred at a check-in desk. Video showed devastation in the hall with ceiling tiles and glass scattered across the floor. Bloodied bodies lay around. Some passengers emerged from the terminal with blood spattered over their clothes. Smoke rose from the building through shattered windows and passengers fled down a slipway, some still hauling their bags.

Britain, Germany, France and the Netherlands, all wary of spillover from conflict in Syria, were among states announcing extra security measures. Security was tightened at the Dutch border with Belgium.

The blast hit the train as it left Maelbeek station, close to EU institutions, heading to the city center. VRT carried a photograph of a metro carriage at a platform with doors and windows completely blown out, its structure deformed and interior mangled and charred.  A local journalist tweeted a photograph of a person lying covered in blood among smoke outside the station. Ambulances were ferrying the wounded away and sirens rang out across the area.

“WE ARE AT WAR”

“We are at war and we have been subjected to acts of war in Europe for the last few months,” French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said. Train services on the cross-channel tunnel from London to Brussels were suspended. Britain advised its citizens to avoid all but essential travel to Brussels. Security services have been on a high state of alert across western Europe for fear of militant attacks backed by Islamic State, which claimed responsibility for the Paris attack. While most European airports are known for stringent screening procedures of passengers and their baggage, that typically takes place only once passengers have checked in and are heading to the departure gates.

Abdeslam, the prime surviving suspect for the Paris attacks on a stadium, cafes and a concert hall, was captured by Belgian police after a shootout on Friday. Interior Minister, Jan Jambon, said on Monday the country was on high alert for a revenge attack.

(Additional reporting by Andrew Heavens in London, Ali Abdelaty and Eric Knecht in Cairo, and Barbara Lewis, Robert-Jan Bartunek, Clement Rossignol, Julia Fioretti, Meredith McGrath, Foo Yun Chee, Robin Emmott, Jan Strupczewski and Alastair Macdonald in Brussels and Jochen Elegeert in Amsterdam; Editing by Ralph Boulton and David Stamp)