Validate SQL Query Syntax with Python and SQLite

I've settled with creating an in-memory database and executing the queries in which I am interested. However, the following code example is very slow and I will continue looking for a better solution. Also, I am aware of the vulnerability to SQL injection attacks in the following code, but that is not something with which I am concerned at the moment.

import sqlite3

# open the SQL file and read the contents
f_contents = open("example.sql").read()

# Use regexes to split the contents into individual SQL statements.
# This is unrelated to the issues I'm experiencing, show I opted not
# to show the details. The function below simply returns a list of
# SQL statements
stmnt_list = split_statements(f_contents)

temp_db = sqlite3.connect(":memory:")

good_stmnts = []    # a list for storing all statements that executed correctly
for stmnt in stmnt_list:
    # try executing the statement
    try:
        temp_db.execute(stmnt)
    except Exception as e:
        print("Bad statement. Ignoring.\n'%s'" % stmnt)
        continue
    good_stmnts.append(stmnt)

temp_db.close()