D7 images not loading from css or from direct urls
Have you tried

&lt;img src="/sites/default/files/StMaryDedication_1_20121202.jpg"&gt;

and

.section-contact div#header {
  background-image: url('../images/contact_banner.png');
}


where images is a folder in your theme dir e.g: images/contact_banner.png relative to css file in e.g: css/style.css.